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NEM Spikes As Coincheck Says Sorry For ‘Losing’ $400 Million, Promises To Give It Back Later
Boy, oh boy cryptocurrencies sure are fun.
On Friday, the crypto crowd was rattled by what certainly looked like one of the largest thefts in the history digital currencies.
Long story short (and really, you only need the short version), some $400 million worth of "NEM coins" went missing from one of Japan’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges. That was just the latest reminder of the inherent dangers of the market.
Needless to say, that was a PR nightmare for Coincheck, the exchange
Probably some sort of Plung Protection Team action much like what has happened everytime the US Markets have sold off since November 2017.
It’s interesting that they’ve chosen to reimburse people in yen rather than in NEM tokens. If the folks running the exchange truly believe that what they’re selling is a legitimate currency, rather than simply being a speculative “asset”, why not pay people back in the currency that was stolen?
This seems like a tacit admission on behalf of the exchange that NEM tokens really aren’t a currency and that yen are a better way to reimburse these folks for their loss. It’s also telling that the customers that lost their tokens are happy to accept yen and aren’t clamoring for tokens rather than yen. It’s seems that, on some level, everyone involved knows these tokens are bullshit.
Clearly they can’t pay back in NEM when you have 20%+ daily realized volatility. What if NEM goes from 1 to 2$ in the next month? If anything, this shows they believe in the continued increase of NEM. It’d be much cheaper to pay back NEM after it crashes. Then again, if all the cryptos crash before they pay everyone back, they can just declare bankruptcy.
So, I guess, if you have to lose $400M, might as well play it like this.