Tag: Coincheck

Binance Japan Announces Launch Details, Set to Become Top Domestic Exchange with 34 Cryptocurrencies

by Blockchain News

Binance Japan has announced detailed plans for its upcoming cryptocurrency exchange service, aiming to launch within August. The announcement was made on August 1, 2023.

Binance Japan will handle 34 cryptocurrencies, surpassing major domestic competitors such as Bitbank (30 cryptocurrencies), GMO Coin (26 cryptocurrencies), and Coincheck (22 cryptocurrencies). This makes Binance Japan the top domestic exchange in terms of the number of cryptocurrencies handled at launch.

Binance Japan will initially offer two main services: a “cryptocurrency exchange” that matches user-to-user trades, and a “cryptocurrency sales office” that displays a single selling price in real-time. Leverage trading, which involves buying and selling assets using borrowed funds, will not be provided.

Binance’s exchange token, “Build and Build (BNB),” is expected to be listed in Japan for the first time. Binance Japan will also offer features like “Simple Earn,” where users can deposit their crypto assets and earn interest, an “NFT Marketplace,” “Auto Invest,” and “API Connection” functionalities.

Binance Japan has decided not to provide leverage trading, as obtaining the required “Type 1 Financial Instruments Business” license in Japan involves strict standards. The listing of certain cryptocurrencies like Solana (SOL), Astra (ASTR), Avalanche (AVAX), Jasmine (JASMY), and Axie (AXS) indicates an intention to attract experienced users.

Binance Japan is also considering or preparing to list domestic unlisted cryptocurrencies, though no specific details have been announced at this time. Binance announced the acquisition of the Financial Services Agency-registered exchange company Sakura Exchange Bitcoin (SEBC) in November 2022. The transition to a new management structure and the transfer of all shares to Binance Holdings were subsequently announced.

Binance Holdings’ CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), participated in the international conference WebX on July 25, announcing the full service offering in Japan starting in August.

Binance Japan’s announcement marks a significant step in expanding its presence in the Japanese market. By offering the highest number of cryptocurrencies at launch and introducing unique features, Binance Japan is positioning itself as a major player in the domestic exchange landscape. The decision to exclude leverage trading aligns with the regulatory environment in Japan, reflecting a cautious approach to compliance. The inclusion of specific cryptocurrencies and additional services indicates a targeted strategy to cater to various user needs and preferences.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : / / / /

Japan’s Crypto Exchange Coincheck to List on NASDAQ Stock Market in July 2023

by Blockchain News

Coincheck, a major crypto exchange in Japan, announced on Friday plans to complete its listing on Nasdaq via a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Thunder Bridge Capital Partners IV on July 2, 2023.

Coincheck said the plans to pursue a public stock offering in the US through Nasdaq would give the firm access to the country’s lucrative capital markets.

The exchange said that the move would enable it to expand its crypto asset business by accessing the U.S. capital markets, gaining exposure to global investors, and recruiting talent to realize its growth strategy. Coincheck majority owner Monex Group stated in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.

Coincheck announced its public-listing ambitions in March of this year. During that time, its merger with Thunder Bridge Capital was valued at $1.25 billion.

SPACs were the hottest way crypto firms use to hit the public market in 2020 and 2021, but the craze has cooled this year amid an overall market downturn along with added Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations.

Since June this year, the SEC is now more cautious about the overall SPAC process, especially crypto-linked deals, to enhance investor protection.

SPACs overall have been very volatile and on a downward trajectory this year. Crypto companies aiming to go public through SPACs may be running out of time to close the deals, as they appear stuck on the sidelines after failing to find a buyout target.

Circle Internet Financial, the backer of the “stablecoin” USD Coin, has been trying to go public with a SPAC called Concord Acquisition (CND) since July last year.

Also, on the sidelines is a crypto/SPAC deal between eToro Group, an Israel-based online brokerage, and FinTech Acquisition Corp. V (FTCV), a SPAC backed by veteran financier Betsy Cohen. The companies canceled their merger in early July after they couldn’t close the transaction by its June 30 deadline. Failure to gain clearance from the SEC was one of the reasons the deal went bust.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : / / / /

Japan’s Coincheck to List on Nasdaq via SPAC Merger with $1.25 Billion Valuation

by Blockchain News

Coincheck, a major crypto wallet and exchange service in Japan, announced Tuesday that it plans to go public in the U.S. by merging with blank-check firm Thunder Bridge Capital Partners IV Inc.

Webp.net-resizeimage - 2022-03-23T153252.658.jpg

The merger is scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2022, which will see the combined entity listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker “CNCK.”

The proposed transaction is set to give the combined entity a valuation of about $1.25 billion.

Before expenses and assuming there are no redemptions by shareholders, Thunder Bridge will offer $237 million in cash to the combined company.

Coincheck is 94.2% owned by Japanese online brokerage Monex Group Inc, which will retain all the existing entities at closing, representing ownership of about 82% in the new entity.

Once the closing is done, Gary Simanson, the CEO and President at Thunder Bridge, will become the CEO of the combined company.

Building Innovation Capability for Service Delivery

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Tokyo, Coincheck is a marketplace for buying and selling cryptocurrencies and an exchange for digital assets like non-fungible tokens. The exchange has about 1.5 million customers.

In January 2018, Coincheck was hacked, and approximately 500 million NEM tokens ($530 million) were stolen. As a result, the digital money heist prompted The Financial Services Agency, Japan’s financial regulator, to tighten regulatory scrutiny. The agency not only ordered Coincheck to improve its security practices but also called for an improvement in the risk management infrastructure of all other crypto exchanges in the country.

In April 2018, Coincheck was acquired by Monex Group for 3.6 billion yen (US 33.4 million). The acquisition was a reaction to the NEM hack, as Coincheck recognized that it needed to strengthen its management system and organization. The move directly responded to Japan’s Financial Services Agency, which requested the exchange to make changes following the January hack — which saw Coincheck compensating the affected users.

During that, Monex Group cited hopes to hold an IPO (initial public offering) of Coincheck shares at a future date. The plan is currently being actualized through the ongoing efforts to list the exchange on the Nasdaq stock exchange through a special purpose acquisition with Thunder Bridge Capital.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : / / / /

The biggest crypto heists of all time

by Cointelegraph

The biggest crypto heists to date are MT Gox, Bitgrail, Coincheck, KuCoin, PancakeBunny, Poly Network, Cream Finance, BadgerDAO, Vulcan Forged and Bitmart.

MT Gox

MT Gox was the first large-scale exchange hack, and it remains the most significant Bitcoin (BTC) heist from an exchange. The MT Gox robbery, on the other hand, was not a one-off occurrence. Rather, the site leaked cash from 2011 to February 2014.

Hackers stole 100,000 BTC from the exchange and 750,000 BTC from its consumers over a few years. These Bitcoin burglaries were valued at $470 million at the time, but they’re now worth approximately ten times this amount. Shortly after the theft, MT Gox went into liquidation, with liquidators recovering roughly 200,000 of the stolen BTC.

Bitgrail

Bitgrail was a small Italian exchange that traded in obscure cryptos like Nano (XNO). The exchange was hacked in February 2018, just as the price of XNO soared from a few cents to $33. At least 17 million coins (the equivalent of about $150 million) were taken from Nano wallets.

Many users began to express their dissatisfaction with the exchange before the attack (significantly lower withdrawal limits and transaction problems). According to the investigations, the coins were stolen from cold—not hot— wallets. Investigations persisted throughout the preceding three years, with Italian authorities now charging Bitgrail’s owner of being behind the attacks.

Coincheck

Coincheck, based in Japan, had $530 million worth of NEM (XEM) tokens stolen in January 2018. Hackers took advantage of the fact that the currency was kept in a “hot” wallet, which meant it was connected to the server and thus “online” (a cold wallet sees funds stored offline).

The stolen coins were identified and marked as such by NEM developers, although there was conjecture that the monies were available on dark markets.

However, given how much the coins lost in value following the attack, it’s unlikely that many people would have thought this was a good deal (the coins are now worth 83% less than they were—roughly $90 million).

KuCoin

KuCoin announced in September 2020 that hackers had obtained private keys to their hot wallets before withdrawing substantial quantities of Ethereum (ETH), BTC, Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Tron (TRX) and Tether (USDT). Since then, experts have claimed that they have reasonable cause to assume that crypto heist hackers are North Korean.

PancakeBunny

This flash loan attack, in which hackers were able to siphon $200 million from the platform, occurred in May 2021 and is among the more severe cases of cryptocurrency theft. The hacker loaned a big sum of Binance Coin (BNB) before manipulating its price and selling it on PancakeBunny’s BUNNY/BNB market to carry out the attack.

This allowed the hacker to obtain a large number of BUNNY via a flash loan, dump all of the BUNNY on the market to lower the price, and then repay the BNB using PancakeSwap.

Poly Network

In August 2021, a hacker exploited a vulnerability in Poly Network’s infrastructure and stole funds totaling more than $600 million. They didn’t get away with their reward, though, in an odd twist. Instead, the hacker approached the platform and agreed to return the majority of the funds, except $33 million in Tether (USDT) that had been frozen by the issuers.

But the saga didn’t end there: $200 million of the stolen assets were locked away in an account that required the hacker’s password, according to Poly Network. The hacker initially refused to hand over the hacked crypto.

That is, until Poly Network pleaded with them to release it, gave them a $500,000 reward for discovering the system flaw, and even offered them a job! Poly Network later revealed that the private key had been handed to them by “Mr. White Hat.”

Cream Finance

Not only did hackers steal $130 million in the October 2021 incident related to robbing a cryptocurrency, but it was also Cream Finance’s third attack of the year. Hackers took $37 million in February 2021 and $19 million in August 2021.

In the most recent attack, hackers used what was deemed a flaw in the DeFi platform’s flash lending system. On the Ethereum network, they were able to take all of Cream Finance’s tokens and assets, totaling $130 million.

BadgerDAO

A hacker succeeded in stealing assets from multiple cryptocurrency wallets on the DeFi network, BadgerDAO, in December 2021. The problem is thought to have started on November 10 when a malicious script was injected into the website’s user interface.

Users’ transactions may have been intercepted while the script was active. The attacker took 896 BTC valued at roughly $50 million at that time.

Vulcan Forged

In December 2021, hackers stole $135 million from Vulcan Forged, a blockchain gaming startup. They stole private keys to 96 separate wallets before draining 4.5 million PYR tokens from them.

Bitmart

In December 2021, a hack of Bitmart’s hot wallet resulted in the theft of about $200 million. At first, it was thought that $100 million had been stolen via the Ethereum blockchain, but additional research found that another $96 million had been stolen via the Binance Smart Chain blockchain.

Over 20 tokens were taken, including altcoins such as BSC-USD, Binance Coin (BNB), BNBBPay (BPay), and Safemoon, as well as substantial quantities of Moonshot (MOONSHOT), Floki Inu (FLOKI) and BabyDoge (BabyDoge).

Source

Tagged : / / / / / / / /

Coincheck crypto exchange announces Japan’s first ever IEO

by Cointelegraph

Coincheck’s goal of conducting the first-ever initial exchange offering in Japan is moving closer to becoming a reality.

According to a release issued on Monday, the Japanese crypto exchange announced that the Hashpalette (HPT) IEO will take place in the summer. IEOs are a modified form of initial coin offering where a crypto exchange platform acts as an intermediary between token issuers and investors.

Coincheck partnered with Hashpalette back in August 2020 with plans for HPT to become the first IEO-issued utility token in the Japanese crypto market. At the time, the plan was coming on the heels of newly passed cryptocurrency laws in Japan creating a clear-cut legal framework for token sale events among other market segments.

IEOs have also been the subject of regulatory uncertainty especially concerning whether IEO tokens qualify as securities.

For Coincheck, the goal of conducting Japan’s maiden IEO is part of the efforts to improve its crypto business. Back in January 2018, Coincheck suffered one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange hacks in history with about $534 million in NEM (XEM) tokens stolen from the platform.

Hashpalette is a cross-blockchain, nonfungible token platform based in Japan that focuses on digital content like manga, music and sports among others. The NFT platform supports popular blockchain networks like Ether (ETH), Neo (NEO), and Ontology (ONT).

During its initial IEO announcement back in August 2020, Hashpalette revealed that the proceeds from the token sale would be used to develop is Palette blockchain platform for more robust digital content distribution.

Apart from Hashpalette, Coincheck has also been making other significant inroads into the NFT space. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the Japanese exchange announced plans to list NFTs by fan token giants Chiliz on its marketplace.

The Coincheck marketplace also lists other popular NFTs including CryptoKitties.