Echoing the Mt. Gox fiasco that happened nearly four years ago, Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck disclosed Friday that a hacker had stolen about ¥58 billion ($532 million) worth of its holdings, sending clients into a panic about the fate of their virtual assets.
If confirmed, the heist will surpass the ¥48 billion ($480 million at the time) lost in the collapse of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in February 2014.
Coincheck Inc., one of Japan's major cryptocurrency exchanges, said it discovered a significant drop in the balance of its NEM virtual currency at around 11:25 a.m. Friday after about ¥58 billion of it was illegitimately transferred.