Japan: 18 Year Old Charged for Stealing $100,000 in MonaCoin in Country's First Crypto Theft Case

Japanese authorities in the city of Utsunomiya have charged an 18-year-old for stealing crypto from Monappy, a digital wallet service for MonaCoin.

The unnamed teenager was reportedly referred to prosecutors in what is the country's first case of charges being brought against a cryptocurrency hacker.

Even though Japan has been at the forefront of crypto adoption, the country has yet to find and charge a hacker over cryptocurrency theft.

That is, until Mar. 15th, when Japanese authorities charged an 18-year-old hacker for stealing cryptocurrency.

According to Japan Times, the defendant, who is a resident of the Tochigi prefecture, was accused of stealing over $100,000 in cryptocurrency between Aug. 14th and Sep.

Local reports indicated that the boy stole the funds from Monappy, an online wallet used to store and manage the MonaCoin token.

The hacker used Tor's encryption software to hide his personal information, which includes his IP address, Japan Times reported.

The incident report also revealed that the hacker transferred the stolen funds to an account on a different crypto website.

While the name of the website was left out of local reports, the hacker himself told the authorities that he converted the stolen MonaCoin to another digital asset.

The case marks an important milestone for the crypto industry in Japan, as the country has seen over 7,000 cases of suspected money laundering reported in 2018 alone.