Yet Another Cryptocurrency Hacking Occurred

Both domestic and foreign cryptocurrency exchanges have reported frequent hacking incidents since the beginning of this year. Still, compensation for victims is showing little progress. This is because cryptocurrency tracking is not easy in nature and collection is not that simple even if tracking is successful.

Coinrail, the seventh-largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, announced on June 11 that it lost 30% of the coins it manages due to a hacking attack. The total damage is estimated at 40 billion won (US$36 million).

Coinrail said that it took measures such as freezing and collection for two-thirds of the stolen coins and it would make efforts to collect the rest as well. However, this is unlikely to be easy if the past is any guide. According to experts, tracking is practically impossible if the coins have already been traded. This is because the number of real-name cryptocurrency accounts is still small in spite of the South Korean government’s measure in January this year.

That month, Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck was hacked, with 260,000 or so people losing 58 billion yen worth of virtual money. However, the cause of the incident has yet to be found out and the victims are waiting indefinitely for compensation. In BitGrail in Italy, 17 million Nano coins equivalent to US$170 million were hacked in the following month. No compensation plan has been announced since then though.

Things are exactly the same in South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges. Youbit filed for bankruptcy last year after losing 17.2 billion won (US$15.4 milion), but it is still doing business under the name of CoinBin. Yapizon, the predecessor of Youbit, lost 5.5 billion won (US$4.9 million) as a result of hacking in April last year, too.