Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck Inc. said yesterday that it would return about 46.3 billion yen ($425 million) of the virtual money it lost to hackers two days ago in one of the biggest-ever thefts of digital money, Reuters reported. That amounts to nearly 90 percent of the 58 billion yen worth of NEM coins the company lost in an attack that forced it to suspend on Friday withdrawals of all cryptocurrencies except bitcoin. Coincheck said that it would repay the roughly 260,000 owners of NEM coins in Japanese yen, though it was still working on timing and method. Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said that Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) sent a notice to the country’s roughly 30 firms that operate virtual currency exchanges to warn of further possible cyber-attacks, urging them to step up security.
