Hacked Bitpoint Japan to reimburse 50,000 affected users in cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitpoint Japan said it will compensate the estimated 50,000 users who lost their assets following a recent hacking attack with cryptocurrency, according to media outlet Asahi Shimbun.

As per the report, the operator revealed that it lost roughly 3.02 billion yen (~$28 million) worth of virtual currency after its online holdings were accessed illegally. Of the total amount, 2.06 billion yen (~$19.1 million) belonged to its customers, while the remainder is owned by the company.

Bitpoint Japan assured that it has already prepared the breached amount in cryptocurrency and repayments will start once its service is restored.

Genki Oda, President of BITPoint Japan, expressed his apologies for the incident. He said that the company is currently investigating the cause of the hack but did not provide further detail.

As previously reported, the exchange suffered a major hack on July 12. Initially, it reported that it lost 3.5 billion yen (~$32 million). It has suspended all its transactions and services following the breach.

The company’s second report, however, said that a part of the stolen assets worth 250 million yen (~$2.3 million) was discovered, revising its estimate initial loss at 3.02 billion yen. Remix Point Inc., its parent company, later released details of the five affected crypto assets (Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Litecoin, and XRP) in total.

The 2019 Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering Report by blockchain security firm CipherTrace found that more than $356 million were stolen by criminals from cryptocurrency exchanges and infrastructure in the first quarter of the year. It added that these are only “visible” losses and that the true number is expected to be much higher.