Bitpoint is a licensed Japanese cryptocurrency exchange and a part of Remixpoint Inc. The cryptocurrency exchange revealed that it experienced a security breach in which irregular withdrawals were made from its online wallets on Thursday.

Based on reports, Bitpoint halted all exchange operations including deposit and withdrawal requests, as well as trading activities on its platform following the hacking. In an official announcement, Bitpoint disclosed that it lost about 3.5 billion yen (approximately $32 million). Among the stolen funds, 2.5 billion yen (approximately $23 million) belonged to customers and 1 billion (approximately $9.2 million) to the exchange. Therefore about 71 percent of the stolen funds were customers deposits. The exchange’s cold wallets were not tampered with.

Uncertainty about the stolen cryptocurrencies

At the time of writing, we are still not sure of the type of digital assets that were stolen. Prior to the hack, the exchange offered trading for five different cryptocurrencies: bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether, litecoin, and XRP.

Japan has experienced several hacking episodes this year. Cryptocurrency adoption in the country is still being accessed by regulators and news of exchange hackings will definitely have a negative impact on the nation’s decision.

In September 2018, Zaif, a licensed exchange under the Japanese Financial Services Agency, lost about $60 million worth of cryptocurrencies to a hack. Early last year, Coincheck was also hacked, in this case, more than $520 million worth of cryptocurrencies were stolen.

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