Hackers steal $32 million worth of crypto from Bitpoint

Keeping your cryptocurrency at exchanges, unless you absolutely must do so, still isn’t prudent. 

New proof of that comes from Japan, where cryptocurrency exchange Bitpoint has been hacked to the tune of $32 million, CoinDesk reports. 

In a notice on its website, Bitpoint said it has “identified an unauthorized outflow of virtual currency,” which is why it has stopped trading as well as opening new accounts, in order to find the cause and minimize damage. 

A more detailed document from Bitpoint’s parent company Remixpoint says $23 million of the stolen funds belonged to the exchange’s customers. According to Nikkei Asian Review, Remixpoint plans to compensate those customers. 

There’s no word on which coins were stolen, but CoinDesk says that Bitpoint offered trading in five cryptocurrencies; Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, and XRP. 

Cryptocurrency exchanges getting hacked isn’t new, but the last couple of months have been particularly bad. Days ago, Singaporean crypto exchange Bitrue was hacked to the tune of $4.2 million. In May, Binance lost approximately $40 million due to a hack. 

Bitpoint also isn’t the first Japanese exchange to get hacked. In Sept. 2018, Japan’s Zaif suffered the same fate, with hackers making off with $59 million worth of coins, and in Jan. 2018, another Japanese exchange, Coincheck, lost a devastating $424 million in a hack.