According to a report published by Nikkei Asia, about 30 individuals that were part of illicit transactions linked to the $530 million Coincheck hack have been nabbed by Japanese police.
As reported by U.Today, Takayoshi Doi and Masaki Kitamoto, the two men who masterminded the high-profile heist, got arrested back in March 2020.
Tokyo-based Coincheck suffered a massive breach back in January 2018, losing 523 million NEM (XEM) tokens kept in its hot wallet.
In March 2018, it delivered hefty cash compensation totaling $435 million to its affected customers.
Tainted tokens
The bad actors were identified by tracing the trail of their ill-gotten crypto that was reportedly offered on the dark web at a 15 percent discount.
Since NEM tagged all stolen XEM tokens as tainted, it was very challenging to convert them into Bitcoin or fiat currencies without being noticed.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team