DMM Bitcoin exchange shuts down after a $321 million fraud incident

DMM Bitcoin, a Japanese crypto exchange is shutting down its operations according to a recent report by Nikkei Asia. The exchange was unable to recover from a massive fraud incident that occurred earlier in May, 2024, resulting in the loss of 48.2 billion yen.

The overall losses of this exchange are equivalent to $321 million. DMM Bitcoin has now confirmed its liquidation and transfer of customer assets to SBI VC Trade by March, 2025. SBI VC Trade is a subsidiary of the SBI group. With this acquisition, SBI is anticipating a trouble-free transition for the existing users of DMM Bitcoin.

DMM Bitcoin fraud affected 450,000 accounts

The fraud affected 450,000 client accounts with combined total assets worth 96.2 billion yen. While the company didn’t give much information about the loss, a major crypto analysis firm, Chainalysis confirmed that it was one of the biggest crypto fraud incidents in Japan to date. It was also the second largest incident in the region since CoinCheck’s loss of $530 million worth of assets back in 2018.

🚨 Today’s hack of Japanese exchange DMM Bitcoin for $305M worth of bitcoin is the biggest hack since Dec 2022 and the 7th largest crypto hack ever. Chainalysis has labelled the stolen funds in our products. https://t.co/AkvIK5VIcD

— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) May 31, 2024

After this incident, DMM Bitcoin lost its ability to serve its existing customer base despite all its efforts to restart the operations. At the same time, authorities found flaws in the exchange’s security measures even though it had implemented a cold wallet system.