At 2:57 a.m. on Friday morning in Tokyo, someone hacked into the digital wallet of Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck Inc. and pulled off one of the biggest heists in history.
Three days later, the theft of nearly $500 million in digital tokens is still reverberating through cryptocurrency markets and policy circles around the world.
The episode, disclosed by Coincheck executives at a hastily arranged press conference on Friday night, has heightened calls for stricter oversight at a time when many governments are grappling with how to regulate the booming cryptocurrency exchange industry. Japanese policy makers began a new licensing system for the venues just a few months ago, and regulators in South Korea are debating whether to ban exchanges outright.
While Bitcoin and its ilk have recovered from their selloff on Friday — thanks in part to Coincheck’s assurances over the weekend that customers would be partially reimbursed — market observers say concerns over security lapses at […]
