Hacked Exchange Zaif Resumes Trading in BCH, Points Program Adds BTC

Japanese exchange Zaif – last year the victim of a USD 63 million hack – has resumed trading in Bitcoin Cash, one of the cryptocurrencies that hackers made away with in September last year.

Zaif suspended trading in the wake of the attack, and was subsequently the subject of a takeover by Fisco, also the operator of the Financial Service Agency (FSA)-licensed FCCE exchange. The exchange had planned to resume trading in Bitcoin Cash, Monacoin and begin opening new accounts last month.

Per an official release, Zaif says that Bitcoin Cash transactions will use a new address, and warned users to ensure they did not use the previous address by mistake. The exchange also stated that as Zaif would store cryptocurrency offline (presumably a reference to using cold wallets, rather than hot wallets for customer funds), “transactions may take some time to process.”

The company has also stated that it will postpone Zaif’s proposed integration with the FCCE exchange – and is yet to resume Monacoin trading or accept applications for new accounts.

Meanwhile, another hacked crypto exchange, New Zealand-based Cryptopia, announced today they have “secured 35% of coins on our exchange to new wallets,” as they prepare to fully reopen.

In a separate news from Japan, per Nikkei, yet another Japanese point plan company is entering the cryptocurrency business. Stock Point lets users accrue points by paying for partner companies’ goods and services. The value of these points is linked to the stock market, and points can be traded for real, individual shares in popular companies.

Nikkei reports that the company has now added Bitcoin (BTC) to its offerings, and will presumably allow users to swap or trade points for BTC.

Remixpoint, another point system operator, owns the FSA-licensed BitPoint exchange.

And e-commerce giant Rakuten, which operates a massive point-based loyalty program of its own, has talked about tokenizing its Super Points program. Last year, the company’s CEO told the Mobile World Congress, per ZDNet, “Imagine if we convert [Super Points] to cryptocurrency.” The company’s own Rakuten Coin cryptocurrency project is also in the pipelines.

Last month, it was widely reported that Rakuten was on the verge of beginning crypto pay operations, and the company has also spearheaded calls for the FSA to clarify proposed new cryptocurrency regulations.