Cryptocurrency News: Traders to File Lawsuit Against Hacked Coincheck

A group of cryptocurrency traders who were affected by the multimillion dollar hack on Coincheck last month will file a lawsuit against the Tokyo-based exchange later this week.

According to their lawyer, Hiromu Mochizuki, the 10 traders will request Coincheck to allow them to withdraw cryptocurrencies to so-called wallets or folders used for digital money outside the exchange. This way, they could be able to totally get out of the unsecure cryptocurrency exchange.

Mochizuki said the group will file the case at the Tokyo District Court.

Coincheck restricted deposits and withdrawals of both Japanese yen and NEM cryptocurrency on Jan. 27 to investigate the incident.

According to a Twitter post, it already resumed the withdrawal of yen on its platform last week, after "[completing] the technical safety confirmation with the cooperation of external experts." However, it continued to freeze withdrawals of cryptocurrencies until it could guarantee that its operations are secured.

Mochizuki added that the complainants also plan to file a second lawsuit later this month to claim for damages over decade's biggest cryptocurrency theft.

In late January, Coincheck revealed that hackers were able to steal $530 million worth of NEM cryptocurrencies from its platform.

At that time, Coincheck co-founder Yusuke Otsuka said they did not know yet how the digital coins were stolen, but knew where they went.

"We are tracing them and if we're able to continue tracking, it may be possible to recover them," he told the press at a late time press conference. "But it is something we are investigating at the moment."

Since the incident, Coincheck has promised its members that it would discover the root cause of the breach, ensure the safety of its customers' accounts, and improve its system risk management to ensure the same breach does not happen again.

The company also promised a full refund on the over 260,000 users affected by the hack.