The more than $500 million cryptocurrency heist at a major Japanese exchange last week is unlikely to be the last such hack, according to a Wall Street analyst.
“I think [the attack] does highlight the fact that the industry still has a long way to go in terms of basic issues of security,” Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.
“This is certainly not the first, nor will it be the last, such hack attack on cryptocurrencies and, all things considered, I think they’re taking it fairly well in terms of price,” Colas added.
His comments came after Japanese exchange Coincheck announced Friday that around 523 million of its NEM coins had been directed to another account. Those coins were reportedly worth approximately 58 billion yen ($534.8 million) when the hack was detected.
The exchange later said in a blog post on Sunday that it would be making reparations to roughly 260,000 affected users, adding that it offered its apologies for the “immense distress” caused to customers following the hack. Around 46.3 billion yen ($425 million) will be returned in total, although Coincheck said the method and period of reparation had yet to be decided.
