Bitcoin, XRP worth over $30 million vulnerable as Japanese Licensed exchange BitPoint hacked

BitPoint, a cryptocurrency exchange licensed by the Japanese Financial Services Authority [FSA] was hacked during the early hours of July 12. According to Nikkei Asian Review, the extent of the hack was 3.5 billion yen [approx. $31 million USD]. Prior to confirmation, the quantitative damage of the hack was estimated to be 7 billion yen [approx. $63 million USD].

 The exchange stated that the complete sum did not belong to the exchange, over 71 percent of the total stolen-sum, or roughly 2.5 billion yen [approx. $23 million USD] belonged to the customers, with the remaining $1 billion yen [approx. 10 million USD] belonging to the exchange itself.

Bitcoin and XRP, the first and third top cryptocurrencies in the market, dominated the list of coins stolen, while Ether [ETH], and Litecoin [LTC] were also hit. However, the exchange stated its cold wallets were still secure, thereby preventing further leakage.

The aforementioned Japanese media outlet stated that BitPoint temporarily ceased all “deposits and withdrawals,” at 0630 JST on 12 July. The report read,

 “On the 12th, the company announced that it has stopped all services including deposits and withdrawals and transactions on its website. It is undecided when the service will resume.”

Remixpoint Inc. the parent company of BitPoint saw its shared drop by over 19 percent to their daily lower limit. Bloomberg reported that the shared were stuck on a “glut of sell orders,” as new of the BitPoint hacking tore through their price charts.

 Several cryptocurrency enthusiasts in the island country expressed grief, as the Japanese-digital assets market has been functioning very well. Amidst regulatory certainty, fervent consumers and a strong base, the cryptocurrency market, in terms of trading volume, has been performing well.

BitPoint is the latest in a series of hacking attacks that have struck the cryptocurrency world. Earlier in the year New Zealand based Cryptopia was hacked, following which QuadrigaCX self-imploded by the workings of its late founder Gerald Cotton. South Korean Bithumb, one of the largest fiat-to-crypto exchanges suffered a hack in March, leaving millions of EOS vulnerable.