Monex, a publicly traded Japanese stock exchange is finalizing its proposed purchase of Coincheck. Coincheck, of massive cryptocurrency hack fame, is being resurrected moments before its ultimate demise. The angles to this story are extremely interesting and a surprise to onlookers in the crypto space. Very, very few believed that Coincheck would remain a viable entity after a well-publicized hack stole $530MM worth of cryptocurrency from the firm. It dwarfed the previously largest hack that had occurred at Mt. Gox. You may be acutely aware that Mt. Gox didn’t survive. Coincheck looks like it will, in some form or another. “Japanese online trading platform Monex, currently valued at around $870 mln, is looking to buy a majority stake in the crypto exchange for “several billion yen,” as anonymous sources told Nikkei. Monex is planning to replace the would-be subsidiary’s management and work towards fully restoring its services.” “The move by Monex, Japan’s No.3 online brokerage by customer accounts, would follow a similar foray by its larger rival SBI Holdings Inc. SBI last year obtained a license to run a cryptocurrency exchange, but in February postponed plans to do so as it sought to bolster the security of its exchange.”
“Monex shares surged 23 percent, the maximum allowed under Tokyo Stock Exchange rules, pushing the company’s market capitalization to 114.3 billion yen ($1.08 billion). The overall Nikkei average fell 0.5 percent.” Let’s see if this deal ultimately closes. If it does, it will go down as a significant story for crypto in 2018. Nobody saw this one coming…