Investors Sue Coincheck Over Lost of Crypto Due to Hacking Incident

The embattled Japanese crypto firm is facing a new challenge in the form of investors suing Coincheck for loss of funds because of the hacking incident.

coincheck sue

Investors filed a lawsuit against Coincheck, the Japanese crypto exchange that suffered a hacking incident in January 2018.

The charges

132 investors filed the lawsuit and are seeking around $2 million in damages. The amount reflects the decline of the price value of the cryptocurrency from the time of the hacking.

In a statement, Coincheck said it cannot respond since they still don’t have a copy of the charges.

The timeline

Initially, Coincheck refused to confirm the incident until they organized a late press conference on January 27, 2018. The conference revealed that the firm did not have proper security measures in place to protect its coins other than bitcoins, which are safe in cold storage. The altcoins like NEM are in hot wallets. Hot wallets are a type of crypto-wallet that you can access easily via mobile apps or browser. The private key of such wallets are controlled by the platform.

Aftermath

The embattled Japanese cryptocurrency exchange has already promised refunds for all affected customers in Japanese Yen. The money will come from the exchange’s own pocket.

The incident has sparked renewed conversations about the collapse of Mt.Gox, the Japanese exchange where, at that time of its hacking, the majority of bitcoins are traded.

While Japan’s Financial Service Agency (FSA) probed if Coincheck can indeed pay the stolen amount, the government decided its best to inspect all cryptocurrency exchanges in the country to check their security measures.

Source: Coindesk, Sankei

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