DMM Bitcoin, a licensed cryptocurrency exchange in Japan, has reported that it confirmed the illegal transfer of a large amount of Bitcoin from its official wallet on March 31st. According to official sources, a total of 4,502.9 BTC were unlawfully transferred, resulting in a loss of approximately 48.2 billion Japanese yen (311 million US dollars).
The exchange has taken measures to address the abnormal outflow of funds and has restricted certain services to further ensure the safety of funds. However, it emphasized that the Bitcoin stored by users within the exchange will not be affected, as the exchange will provide full protection by allocating the corresponding amount of BTC through internal support.
In response to the incident, the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) has requested DMM Bitcoin to investigate the cause of the theft and submit a compensation policy for affected customers.
Meanwhile, Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis company, stated on the community platform X that the amount lost in the hacking attack on DMM Bitcoin is the seventh-largest cryptocurrency hacking event in history and the largest attack since December 2022. According to data from cryptocurrency forensics company TRM Labs, the illegally transferred funds have been dispersed to 10 wallet addresses.
Japan has previously experienced two hacking incidents involving virtual currency exchanges, namely the “Mt. Gox incident” in 2014 and the Coincheck incident in 2018, which resulted in the theft of cryptocurrency assets worth 450 million and 534 million US dollars, respectively. The hacking of DMM Bitcoin this time, with a value of up to 311 million US dollars, will become the third-largest case of its kind in Japan.