Japan: Coincheck Exchange Freezes All Withdrawals As Up To $723 Mln Leaves Its W

[mayuri27]

Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck has suspended all withdrawals as a Ripple payment worth $123mln left its wallet Friday, Jan. 26.

In what appears to be a problem tied to its support of altcoin NEM, Coincheck, which is among Japan’s largest exchanges, suddenly froze NEM deposits Friday.

An accompanying blog post stated:

“Depositing NEM on Coincheck is currently being restricted. Deposits made to your account will not be reflected in your balance, and we advise all users to refrain from making deposits until the restriction has been lifted.”

The restriction then spread to NEM sales and purchases, followed by withdrawals, before the exchange subsequently stopped all currency withdrawals, both crypto and fiat.

“All withdrawals from the platform are currently restricted, including JPY. Thank you for your understanding. We are doing our utmost to resume normal operations as soon as possible,” the most recent update to the blog post reads.

Since operations began to shut down, Coincheck’s wallet has shifted a one-off sum of 101,265,057 XRP, worth approximately $123.5 mln. Unconfirmed reports to Cointelegraph additionally allege $600 mln of NEM has left the exchange.