Coincheck reported today that all 260,000 customers affected by the late January hack have been compensated and that the exchange has resumed some of its trading services as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Coincheck Uses Own Money for Refund
Coincheck, the Tokyo based cryptocurrency exchange which suffered the second largest heist in history losing 523 million NEM tokens in January, has been promising to compensate it’s customers since the hack was discovered.
Customers were compensated at a rate of 88.54 Yen per NEM token which is higher than the current trading price but lower than its 110 Yen value at the time of the heist. Overall the company has returned $435 million to it’s customers.
According to a spokeswoman at Coincheck, the actual compensation process took only a day, having been begun and completed on Monday. She said the company used its own money for the refund.
The hack which resulted in a round of regulatory reform from the Japanese FSA (Federal Services Administration) was blamed on a lack of proper security procedure by the exchange who kept customer tokens in online storage. Since then the FSA has suspended two exchanges from doing business and fined others including Coincheck.
With the completion of refunds made, Coincheck has resumed taking withdrawal orders which it had ceased the day of the hack but has not begun taking deposit orders at the time of writing.
NEM tokens like many cryptocurrencies were designed to give their holders a high level of anonymity which has made tracking the hacked tokens difficult. Investigators are still no closer to discovering the identity of the cyber criminals who hit the exchange or locating the stolen currency. Coincheck continues to remain silent about the ongoing investigation.
Refund Gives Big Bump to XEM
Refunded customers took to Twitter to announce their relief and to show their belief in cryptocurrency by vowing to reinvest the money.
This has been good news for NEM since fears that the hackers would sell the over 5 million tokens have kept investors at bay. XEM tokens have gained over 25% since the completion of the refund
The Coincheck hack triggered memories of Mt. Gox which saw customers lose nearly half a billion in Bitcoin and eventually forced Mt. Gox into bankruptcy which continues to generate controversy today.
Coincheck which is self-described as the second largest exchange in Japan has expressed its intention of remaining in business as an exchange even though it has yet to obtain a trading license. FSA regulators have twice officially warned the company to improve its business practices.
