Today's announcement by Coincheck Exchange from Tokyo Japan that some 400 million NEM tokens have disappeared from the exchange is troubling for the entire sector. It is another example that this space needs to significantly improve the security and ease of buying and holding crypto currencies. Without greater confidence in the security of investments and holdings in crypto the inflo of fiat monies into the space will remain limited. How much money would remain in banks if there these types of heists in the fiat world? Likely very little as people will not risk their assets in unsecured establishments.
How this NEM disappeared is being investigated and hopefully it will be recovered. However until there are real and serious repercussions for these types of theft in this space the ever present hackers will remain diligent in the quest to steal from anywhere they can. This is worse than the wild west where bank robbers showed up at banks regularly to heist the money there. At least these could be tracked down and often they were and brought to justice by prison sentence, at the end of rope or from the barrel of a gun. Without any significant risk of being caught these thieves are emboldened to try again and again .
So key your digital assets safe off exchanges whenever possible. Your net worth is at stake.