Hacked BITpoint Exchange to Refund 50,000 Affected Users in Crypto

Cryptocurrency exchange BITPoint Japan has said that the roughly 50,000 users who lost funds in its recent hack will be reimbursed in cryptocurrency.

The company told reporters in Tokyo on July 16 that customers will receive refunds of crypto on a 1:1 basis, The Asahi Shimbun reports Wednesday.

The company's latest estimate of losses from the security breach comes to around 3.02 billion yen ($28 million) – roughly $4.6 million less than originally thought, the report says.

The thousands of exchange customers are said to have lost 2.06 billion yen ($20 million) in the breach, with the firm saying that it has new prepared that amount in crypto assets for reimbursement. That will occur once the platform has restarted its services, which were halted when the hack was spotted.

Making an apology for the incident, BITPoint president Genki Oda said that the exchange is investigating the cause of the hack, but apparently offered no further detail.

In a post published on Tuesday, the company confirmed that the crypto assets stolen in the July 12 hack included 1,225 bitcoin, 1,985 bitcoin cash, 11,169 ether, and 5,108 litecoin.

When asked if by refunding users in crypto and not cash they might lose out due to recent price drops, BITpoint's director, Kimio Mikazuki, refused to answer "as it includes legal matters," the report indicates.

Bitcoin and yen image via Shutterstock