It was already Friday afternoon in Japan when crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin released a statement saying that it had lost over 4,500 bitcoin or just over $300 million. The statement euphemistically called it an “unauthorized leak”. The original statement in Japanese can be found here. Posting on X, Chainalysis described it as “the biggest hack since Dec 2022 and the 7th largest crypto hack ever.” Japanese regulations say that a Crypto Asset Exchange Services Provider (CAESP) must “manage at least 95% of users’ Crypto Assets in wallets that are not connected to the Internet.” Within hours, news sites were reporting that “the leaked BTC may have originated from hot wallets and isolated cold wallets.” GK8’s CEO Lior Lamesh offered this comment, “We know that most cold custody solutions out there remain vulnerable to digital asset theft when they connect to the internet to receive digital input from the blockchain network. Japan’s regulators require that these systems never connect to the internet, but despite claims from various custody companies, this is often not the case.” Any wallet which connects to the internet, however briefly, presents an attack vector, through which assets can be stolen. Hackers have shown themselves willing to invest significant resources to breach these systems. Lior continued, “We urge financial institutions entering this space to recalibrate their perceptions of current cold storage offerings, to proactively review their approach to custody, and to implement genuinely offline solutions to ensure the security of their digital assets.” Schedule a demo to learn more about GK8’s unique custody solutions for preventing digital asset theft. Legal Disclosure: This document, and the information contained herein, has been provided to you by Galaxy Digital Holdings LP and its affiliates including GK8 (“Galaxy Digital”) solely for informational purposes. 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