Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin will cease operations in March 2025 following an attack that resulted in losses exceeding $300 million.
This decision follows months of recovery efforts that ultimately failed to restore the platform’s viability.
DMM Bitcoin to transfer all assets to SBI VC Trade
According to a report From Nikkei Asia, the exchange also plans to sell all its assets to SBI VC Trade, a trading company owned by the SBI Group.
SBI VC Trade confirmed on December 2 statement that an agreement had been reached to acquire all DMM Bitcoin assets as part of its liquidation process. The transfer, which is expected to conclude by the end of the first quarter of 2025, will include client accounts and assets held by the exchange. Details on specific transfer methods and dates will be revealed in future announcements.
As part of the transition, the company plans to expand its services by offering 14 cryptocurrency spot trading options currently available on the DMM Bitcoin platform. The two firms will continue to discuss the process of transferring assets and accounts.
DMM Bitcoin was hacked on May 31, 2024, resulting in the theft of 4,502.9 BTC, worth approximately $305 million at the time. The exchange confirmed the breach and announced that it had taken steps to prevent further unauthorized withdrawals by suspending all spot purchase transactions.
Furthermore, it assured customers that it would reimburse the lost funds by purchasing an equivalent amount of Bitcoin with the support of its partner companies. To that end, DMM Bitcoin took out a 5 billion yen loan in June and outlined plans to raise an additional 50 billion yen to meet its obligations.
Failed recovery efforts
Despite recovery efforts, continued service restrictions and increased challenges forced the exchange to abandon its plans and ultimately decide to close its operations.
In July, the attackers, believed to be the infamous Lazarus Group, were tracked down laundering more than $35 million in stolen funds through Huione Guarantee, an online marketplace that has reportedly become a center of illicit activities.
PeckShieldAlert too reported that an additional 500 BTC had been transferred across multiple wallets in August. However, all attempts to recover the stolen funds have failed.
The DMM Bitcoin hack ranks as the second largest digital asset breach in Japan, after the $534 million Coincheck hack in 2018.
The Coincheck incident was mainly attributed to the exchange’s inadequate security practices. Most of the stolen tokens were stored in a single online hot wallet protected by a single private key instead of offline cold storage or secure multi-signature wallets, as recommended by their issuer.
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