$32 Million Swiped From Cryptocurrency Exchange in Latest Hack

Lily Nonomiya, Bloomberg News

Lights illuminate USB cables inside a 'mining rig' computer, used to mine cryptocurrency, in Budapest, Hungary, on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018. Cryptocurrencies are not living up to their comparisons with gold as a store of value, tumbling Monday as an equities sell-off in Asia extended the biggest rout in global stocks in two years. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Bitpoint suspended all services after losing about 3.5 billion yen ($32 million) in a hack that involved Ripple and other cryptocurrencies.

The exchange, which is owned by Remixpoint Inc., said about 2.5 billion yen of stolen funds belonged to customers, while Bitpoint owned the rest. Remixpoint shares plunged 19% to their daily lower limit, and were untraded in Tokyo as of 1:44 p.m. on a glut of sell orders.

The funds were stolen from a hot wallet that contained five cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. It said it hasn’t discovered any funds missing from cold wallets.

The exchange was among cryptocurrency operators ordered by Japan’s Financial Services Agency to improve internal controls following the 2018 hack of Coincheck.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lily Nonomiya in Tokyo at lnonomiya@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kyung Bok Cho at kcho7@bloomberg.net, Gearoid Reidy