CoinCheck Announces Compensation to 260,000 NEM Holders Following Major Hack

Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck has today announced a plan to compensate approximately 260,000 holders for $523 million XEM that was illegally removed from Coincheck. The cause of the hack is currently under investigation, according to a on the company’s website. Similar events in other currencies including JPY have not been confirmed.

On Jan. 26, Coincheck suspended some of its functions after an event occurred around 02:57 on that date. The company detected an abnormality around 12:07 and issued a notice regarding the temporary suspension of payments. At around 12:38, NEM trading was temporarily suspended. At around 16:33, withdrawals of all handling currency including JPY were suspended, followed by the temporary suspension of trading other than BTC, including credit card, pay day and convenience store activity. Eventually, exchange executives confirmed the theft near the end of the day.