A group of seven cryptpocurrency investors have filed a suit at the Tokyo District Court against Coincheck Inc, seeking to force the Tokyo-based exchange to allow them to withdraw assets worth $183,000 frozen after last month’s $530 million heist of digital money, Reuters reported.
"Plaintiffs are demanding Coincheck return their cryptocurrencies—13 different kinds including NEM," Mochizuki said.
They also request that Coincheck pay annualized interest of 5 percent on the value of the digital coins from notification of the claim until it resumes withdrawals.
“I‘m hoping (Coincheck) will respond quickly and let us resume withdrawals,” said one of the plaintiffs, who had invested 400,000 yen in digital money at Coincheck.
Coincheck, which froze all withdrawals of yen and digital money after the Jan. 26 heist, restarted on Tuesday yen withdrawals, unleashing a single-day outflow of $373 million. But it said it would keep curbs on withdrawals of cryptocurrencies until it could guarantee the secure resumption of its operations.
The plaintiffs plan to launch a second lawsuit on Feb. 27 to claim for any lost value of the digital money frozen by Coincheck, as well as other damages stemming from the curbs on withdrawals, the lawyer said.
Thieves stole 523 million units of the cryptocurrency NEM from Coincheck during the January 26 hack.