It's a cryptocurrency called NEM, currently the 10th most valuable in the world.
And a hacker or hackers just stole slightly more than $500 million worth of it from a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange called Coincheck. The funds were taken from what is called a "hot wallet" which was connected to the internet.
The company's CEO claims the company will return 90% of the money to customers, but it is unclear how that will be financed or when that will happen.
According to Reuters, tracers show where the coins have gone but cannot get them back at this point: "The Singapore-based NEM Foundation, which describes itself as a promoter of the technology underlying the cryptocurrency, said it had a tracing system on the NEM blockchain and that it had 'a full account' of all of Coincheck’s lost NEM coins. It added that the hacker had not moved any of the funds to any exchange or personal accounts but that it had no way to return the stolen funds to its owners."
Japan's Financial Services Association (FSA) started regulating cryptocurrency exchanges in 2017, however, it is clear there is more work to be done. Especially when 10% of initial coin offerings get stolen.
Can you imagine this happening in IPOs?
Another one of the world's top crypto hacks hit Japan, as well. The Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange in 2014 was hit with a digital heist of about $400 million.