The Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin has unveiled plans to compensate users for losses incurred from the theft of 4502.9 BTC at the end of May.
According to the statement, the platform intends to reimburse clients by purchasing an equivalent amount of bitcoin with financial backing from DMM Group companies.
On June 3, the exchange already secured loan funds amounting to 5 billion yen (~$32 million) for this purpose.
A further capital increase of 48 billion yen (~$307.5 million) is planned for June 7.
Subsequently, DMM Bitcoin expects to obtain a subordinated loan of 2 billion yen (~$12.8 million).
The total amount of funds raised in this case will reach approximately $352 million.
Following this, the exchange will “proceed with purchasing an equivalent amount of bitcoin, striving not to impact the market.”
At the time of writing, the price of the leading cryptocurrency is around $70,700 (CoinGecko). At current rates, the platform needs just over $320 million to acquire the lost assets.
The DMM Bitcoin team “deeply” apologized to affected clients and stated that the investigation into the incident is ongoing. They promised to promptly inform users of the situation as details emerge.
According to Elliptic, the DMM Bitcoin exploit was “the eighth largest cryptocurrency theft of all time and the largest since the FTX hack of $477 million in November 2022.”
In 2018, hackers withdrew over $500 million in NEM (XEM) cryptocurrency from another Japanese exchange, Coincheck. At the time, it was one of the largest crypto platforms in the country.
According to CoinGecko, in the last 24 hours, the normalized trading volume on Coincheck was $89 million (66th place). For comparison, the leading Binance recorded nearly $9.9 billion.
In April 2024, crypto projects collectively lost around $25.7 million to hacks and fraud. This was the lowest monthly amount since 2021, noted CertiK.