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Hackers spirit away over $300M in Bitcoin from DMM Bitcoin

Markets·June 04, 2024, 3:28 AM

Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin announced on Friday that over $300 million worth of Bitcoin was stolen from its primary wallet, marking one of the digital asset industry's largest hacks in recent years.

https://asset.coinness.com/en/news/eebe7e21c5cf8ed0475ba0d9f4e98d52.webp
Photo by Kanchanara on Unsplash

Hack confirmed without further detail

"At approximately 1:26 p.m. on Friday, May 31, 2024, we detected an unauthorized leak of bitcoin from our wallet," the company stated, based on an English translation of its original statement in Japanese, which had been posted on the firm’s website. DMM Bitcoin is a subsidiary of DMM Group, which incorporates businesses covering a broad spectrum of activities including solar energy, gaming, 3D printers, FX, e-books and software.

 

The company has, as yet, not provided any further detail relative to the manner in which the hack occurred. Notwithstanding that, DMM Bitcoin did confirm that measures have been taken to prevent any repeat of the hack. Furthermore, the company outlined that a full investigation into the hack is ongoing right now.

 

Buy orders and leverage trades suspended

The company has moved to reassure platform users that their digital assets are fully guaranteed. It stated:

 

"Please rest assured that all of your bitcoin deposits will be fully guaranteed, as we will procure the equivalent amount of BTC that was leaked with support from our group companies." 

 

The exchange has taken the decision to temporarily suspend a number of activities, including spot trading buy orders and the opening of leveraged trading positions. A temporary halt has been imposed on crypto withdrawals while Japanese yen withdrawals are permitted, albeit that the exchange suggests that service users may experience delays.

 

Blockchain security sector response

In light of the hack, a number of well-known blockchain security firms have been giving the matter their attention. Beosin, a blockchain security specialist, outlined that it is continuing to monitor the wallet addresses implicated in the hack, with a view towards tracing any further movement of the funds.

 

Meanwhile, blockchain analysis firm Arkham Intelligence has offered a 1,000 ARKM token bounty to anyone who may provide information leading to the identification of the perpetrators of the hack. Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis described the hack as “the 7th largest crypto hack ever.” The company has labeled the stolen funds within its products.

 

Broader industry implications and historical context

This hack is a significant blow to the industry, given that a hack on this scale has not occurred thus far in 2024 or at any point during 2023.

 

The crypto industry has faced numerous significant breaches in the past. In 2022, a series of large-scale exploits targeted layer-1 blockchains, crypto exchanges and DeFi protocols. The largest hack amongst them implicated the BNB Chain (formerly Binance Smart Chain), which resulted in the loss of $566 million worth of BNB.

 

The latest hack is second only (within Japan) in size relative to the 2018 hack of Coincheck, one of the country’s largest exchanges, when over $550 million worth of XEM was stolen. Japan was also host to the most infamous Bitcoin hack, that of the Mt. Gox exchange, whose bankruptcy administrators moved $9 billion worth of its remaining Bitcoin holdings on the blockchain in recent days for the first time in many years.

 

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