The Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck made headlines in January of 2018 when it suffered what might be the largest theft in modern history. Hackers targeted the exchange and made off with the equivalent of $500 million in cash. Some 260,000 customers were affected by the theft. The incident follows the security breaches at Mt. Gox, another Japanese exchange, in 2014.

Now, several months after the hack, Coincheck is attempting to do what Mt. Gox could not accomplish. The exchange has promised to pay back the money that was stolen, and it has entertained a deal with another brokerage firm in order to maintain Coincheck's solvency.

Coincheck Tries to Right Itself

Monex, a Japanese brokerage firm, might be the savior Coincheck needs in order to recover from the massive theft of XEM cryptocurrency from its customer's accounts. The firm is considering an offer which would result in Monex acquiring a majority stake in Coincheck.

In contrast to Mt. Gox, Coincheck declared that it would not seek bankruptcy following the theft. Instead, it announced that a plan would be created to pay back the stolen money. The repayment plan was slated to begin on March 12, 2018, and will make restitution to all account holders who possessed XEM at the time of the theft. Individuals will be compensated with 88.549 JPY for each XEM token they lost, an amount that roughly corresponds to the value of the currency at the time it was stolen.

Monex has stepped in with an offer that could create billions of yen for Coincheck. Monex has stated that they will make efforts to restore Coincheck to a reputable trading platform. The brokerage firm itself has a good reputation in Japan and is valued at about 800 million yen. Acquiring Coincheck would represent the first foray of Monex into the cryptocurrency arena.

Still, some in Japan believe that the process of recovery will be a long one for Coincheck. Financial regulators are still wary of cryptocurrency exchanges after the Mt. Gox hack, an incident for which many affected investors remain uncompensated.