Japan's cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin said on Friday that it had lost 4502.9 BTC

Japanese cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin announced on Friday that it had lost 4,502.9 bitcoins, worth approximately 48.2 billion yen or $308 million, in what the company described as an "unauthorized leak."

The company provided no details regarding the incident or whether an outside party was involved, but stated that it is currently conducting an investigation and has limited certain services as a result. Cryptocurrency companies are frequent targets for hacks and cyberattacks, but losses of this magnitude are relatively rare. DMM Bitcoin stated that it will replace customers' lost bitcoin deposits with the assistance of other group companies. Japan's Financial Services Agency demanded that the company investigate the incident, according to public broadcaster NHK. Tom Robinson, chief scientist and co-founder of the crypto research firm Elliptic, noted that if DMM's loss turned out to be theft, it would be the eighth largest crypto theft in history, based on current exchange rates. This would make it the largest since the $477 million hack suffered by FTX in November 2022, he added.