Coincheck Suffers Another Big Loss This Year
Not long ago, Coincheck, the largest cryptocurrency exchange based in Japan has reported a pre-tax loss of up to 588 million yen ($5.3 million) for the third quarter of 2018.
This year has not been a good year for the Japanese exchange, this being the second consecutive quarterly loss since hackers nicked roughly $530 back in January. This means that’s an increased deficit of 130 percent from the 259 million yen ($2.3 million) loss the previous quarter.
As the exchange strived to win back the public’s trust, Coincheck’s revenue for the period of July to September dropped by 66.5 percent to 315 million yen ($2.8 million) from $8.4 million the quarter before that. Also, during the review quarter, attributable net loss enlarged by 111 percent to $3.6 million, as total group net profit came in at $4.9 million, down 118 percent from $10.7 million in the quarter prior.
Back in April, Coincheck was sold to a Tokyo-based securities company Monex Group for $40 million and stated that it retained some 1.7 million users after repaying up to $420 million to depositors after the hack. Cumulative losses over the last six months have made it to $7.6 million, but running costs are down by around 17 percent for the quarter.
Monex Group noted in its third-quarter earnings release this past Monday (October 29th), “Since the service suspension in January 2018, Coincheck basically allowed existing customers only to sell their cryptocurrency.”
In addition to that, Monex said that lawsuits filed against Coincheck, still unregistered under Japanese law, have had only a minor impact on the financial status of the holding company. Also, it added that the exchange had updated security to prevent further breaches. At least four privacy coins have been delisted as part of measures to improve security. Know-your-customer and anti-money laundering features have also been tightened.
The chairman and chief executive officer of Monex Group Oki Matsumoto explained in the financial result statement, noting “Going forward, Coincheck will advance as a highly technology-driven company with a cutting-edge security control system and the know-how to secure profitability appropriate of its true value.”
The CEO went on to say that “In Japan and the United States, we will increase our user base by developing and providing new services that appeal to millennials and other new economic players. And finally, we will expand our operations in the Asia-Pacific region, an area that will support global growth in the future.”
