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KripZen

Coincheck

Failure type
Hack
Date
January 2018
Reported loss
~$530M in NEM (XEM) stolen (publicly reported estimate)

What happened

The Japanese exchange kept a large pool of a single token in an internet-connected hot wallet without a multi-signature setup. Attackers stole hundreds of millions of dollars' worth in one of the largest exchange hacks by value at the time.

What to take from it

Hot-wallet convenience has a price. The safest exchanges keep the large majority of customer funds offline, precisely so one breach can't drain everything.

Dates and figures are widely reported public estimates from coverage at the time, not KripZen's own audited data.

Where it sits on the record

The documented exchange failures we track, in the order they happened.

  1. 2014Mt. Gox
  2. 2015Bitstamp
  3. 2016Bitfinex
  4. 2016The DAO
  5. 2017Parity Multisig Wallet Freeze
  6. 2018BitConnect
  7. 2018Coincheck (You are here)
  8. 2019Binance
  9. 2019Bitfinex / Crypto Capital
  10. 2019QuadrigaCX
  11. 2020KuCoin
  12. 2022Celsius Network
  13. 2022Crypto.com
  14. 2022FTX
  15. 2022Ronin Bridge
  16. 2022Terra / LUNA
  17. 2022Three Arrows Capital
  18. 2022Wormhole
  19. 2023HTX (formerly Huobi)
  20. 2024DMM Bitcoin
  21. 2025Bybit