Coincheck Owner Monex Plans Proprietary Blockchain, ICO

Monex Group, the Japan-based online brokerage firm that recently acquired cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck, said it is eyeing the development of its own blockchain platform, with an initial coin offering to follow.

In its latest financial filing dated April 26, the firm, which also has U.S. and Asia-Pacific divisions, said its Japanese arm will spearhead the planned blockchain push.

Monex stated in the filing:

"Japan segment will use blockchain technology for the aim of executing all the trading of financial products and every financial transactions in safety and at low cost. Creating our own blockchain and its ICO are in the scope."

While no further details were provided on the blockchain plans, the company also detailed for the first time Coincheck's financial standing after it was notably hit by a major hack and subsequently bought out by the brokerage.

Monex Group disclosed in today's filing that the exchange platform is reporting a 6.3 billion yen ($57 million) pre-tax profit for the fiscal year ending March 2018, after deducting an "extraordinary loss of 47.3 billion yen ($432 million)."

Although Monex did not reveal what led to the loss, Coincheck has previously promised it will refund investors around $420 million for holdings lost in the January hack.

As reported by CoinDesk, Coincheck confirmed on Jan. 26 that around 530 million NEM token had been stolen from its platform, which at the time were worth around $530 million.

Soon after the incident, the platform announced it would compensate each stolen token at a rate of $0.81 per token – an amount near $420 million.

Bitcoinhttps://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/virtual-currency-golden-bitcoins-on-10000-1029250012?src=4avrbx44BUspbGNmnPnSDw-1-95 image via Shutterstock