Japan's crypto exchange, DMM Bitcoin, announced liquidation. The company cited recovery issues following a hack of $320 million Bitcoins in May 2024.
On May 30, 2024, the company faced a server breach and private key hack. The DMM Bitcoin hack led to a leak of over 4,500 BTC without permission, with the price being $96,264 per coin. The Japanese crypto exchange shut down all its services of withdrawals, opening new accounts, and trading to calculate the financial damage caused.
In a bid to safeguard users' funds and maintain operations, DMM Bitcoin has agreed to an asset transfer deal with SBI VC Trade, a subsidiary of the SBI Group. All customer assets, including crypto and fiat currency deposits, are expected to be transferred by March 2025. The deal is designed to safeguard customer interest and ease the transition process for them.
The company announced the asset transfer to SBI VC Trade through an official document:
After the hack, DMM Bitcoin promised to fully compensate its customers by procuring the equivalent amount of Bitcoin to cover the stolen funds. The company also requested financial support from its group companies to raise the needed funds. Despite the efforts, the scale of the loss led to DMM's Bitcoin liquidation.
Launched in January 2018 and operated by the DMM Group, DMM Bitcoin has been under growing pressure since the hack. Previously, the exchange was developing the Seamoon Protocol, a Web3 gaming and content platform. In November 2024, DMM Crypto announced it would be abandoning the project, citing drastic changes in the business environment, which has put it under even more pressure.
DMM Bitcoin's hack is part of a broader trend of security breaches that have hit centralized exchanges this year. Other major exchanges, such asWazirX and BingX, have also suffered highly significant hacks in 2024.