Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin confirmed on Friday that it had been the victim of a hack resulting in the theft of 4,502.9 bitcoin, or about $305 million.
The company also promised that all customers’ Bitcoin deposits “will be fully guaranteed as we will procure the equivalent amount of BTC that was leaked with support from our group companies.”
DMM Bitcoin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to De.Fi, the web3 security firm that tracks crypto thefts and scams, hackers stole around $2 billion in crypto across dozens of cyberattacks and thefts last year. While that is still a gargantuan amount of crypto, the total was the lowest since 2020.
Tom Robinson, chief scientist and co-founder of the crypto research firm Elliptic, said that if DMM's loss turned out to be theft, it would be the eighth largest crypto theft of all time, based on exchange rates at the time it occurred.
Around $1.7 billion was stolen from various cryptocurrency platforms last year, crypto research firm Chainalysis said.