Grant Thornton has reported that some restrained assets attributed to the hack and theft have been traced to the USA, and that US law enforcement has been petitioned to offer support. The international nature of Cryptopia has meant that actions have been filed in the United States, Singapore, and Malaysia to track assets. This was mainly done to track whether assets attained during the hack were shifted to exchanges and then sold or laundered. In 2021, while the platform was being liquidated, it was hacked again – this time by a former employee who stole $170,000 in crypto from a wallet tied to the platform. James Page, previously the lead writer at Crypto Head and a registered psychologist, brings a unique perspective to the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Cryptopia Hack was one of the most prominent hacks in cryptocurrency history, during which funds were stolen from around 800 thousand people around the world.
Bankrupt Cryptopia Exchange to Return Crypto to Some Creditors
However, it was later found out that the hacks were still going on even after the police had been involved. On the contrary, the technology has been rock solid in keeping an immutable ledger by recording every single transaction ever made. However, especially at the early stages of the crypto hype, the pitfalls of blockchain technology weren’t discovered yet, and measures against cybercrime weren’t regularly implemented. We recommend that any account holders who have entered into a sale and purchase or assignment agreement with any of these third parties seek independent legal advice.
How to Get a Refund From Cryptopia Exchange?
“The Liquidators and cryptopia withdrawal Cryptopia can use the assets recovered by the FBI for further tracing and recovery actions,” the message said. Our Content on the Website is Our own opinion and does not constitute financial or investment advice in any way whatsoever. Nothing published on the Website constitutes an investment recommendation, and You should not rely on any data or Content published by Us for any financial or investment activities.
Update for Cryptopia Claimants and Stakeholders 5 March 2024
Aside from the obvious risks of cryptocurrency trading, such as the high volatility in Bitcoin and altcoin prices, there are other risks you need to be aware of when keeping your assets on the blockchain. This isn’t because blockchain technology is inherently risky or vulnerable to fraud or scams. Account holders should be cautious about providing their Cryptopia account information to third parties.
- Another notable aspect of the liquidator’s report is the costs involved with the process.
- After the hack, Cryptopia announced that they would give a rebate to users who lost their funds, but the team didn’t give further explanation as to how.
- The claims portal has been designed to verify each account holder’s account ownership and identity, and it is very important this sensitive process is protected.
- Because Cryptopia operated as a centralized exchange (CEX), it kept custody of its users’ funds and had access to all of the private keys.
- The hack saw over 70,000 wallets compromised and over US$23 million in Ethereum (ETH) and ERC-20 tokens stolen.
The company has stated that they are expecting to file applications on the redistribution of funds starting from the first half of 2022. A small victory was won in February 2020, when the high court of Christchurch ruled that Cryptopia users are entitled to the funds that the exchange was keeping custody of. After further investigations, Cryptopia announced that 9.4% of the assets stored on its servers were stolen. This number was equal to 23 million NZD or 16 million USD at the time and was considered to be the biggest scam ever pulled in New Zealand. When Bitcoin and altcoin prices skyrocketed in 2017, Cryptopia had also seriously expanded its services to keep up with the booming market.
The platform supported a wide variety of cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Cardano (ADA), and even ERC-20 tokens, or lesser-known tokens such as Electroneum (ETN). This drew a lot of attention from coin enthusiasts around the world and turned Cryptopia into a trending platform. If you are into cryptocurrency trading, you must have learned by now that it’s a risky business – either by doing your research or by having your fingers burned and learning it the hard way.
This led to a lockdown and a physical investigation of the company’s headquarters the next day. While there are still a large number of Cryptopia users yet to be accounted for, the Grant Thornton customer support says it has engaged with 93,700 claimants. David Ian Ruscoe and Malcolm Russell Moore, of Grant Thornton New Zealand Limited, were appointed jointly as liquidators of Cryptopia Limited in May 2019.
There are other complications laid out in the operational process in the latest liquidators report. Grant Thornton explain that this is “due to the fact that the source of the original hack is still unidentified. In order to be eligible to receive your assets back in the asset transfer stage, which hasn’t started yet, what you need to do is to fill in the claim acceptance form through the claims portal. In his decision, Judge Gendall explained that it is his view that cryptocurrency was property as it met, “some degree of permanence or stability,” which is a requirement of Section 2 of the Companies Act. This means that the cryptocurrencies are owned by the account holders, and will not form part of the pool of assets available to unsecured creditors.
As well as the large number of account holders, 37 creditors, 90 shareholders and New Zealand’s tax agency are also seeking a good portion of the company’s remaining assets. “This marks the launch of the Cryptopia claims portal to start the process of returning account holders’ property,” the liquidator’s post reads. Cryptopia was one of the most popular crypto exchanges back in the day before it faced a massive security breach in 2019. The platform was hacked, and a considerable amount of digital assets was stolen from the wallets of the platform users. The case of Cryptopia liquidation has been going on for a couple of years now and in this article, we will look at how you can get back your lost assets from the platform and learn what happened to the exchange. The current plan by Grant Thorton is to return assets to account holders by the end of 2024.
Currently, the exchange’s official web domain, cryptopia.co.nz, redirects you to Grant Thornton’s web page, where you can keep yourself updated on the latest developments. After two years of operating, Dawson and Clark both quit their jobs in order to run Cryptopia full time. The platform peaked in popularity following the 2017 market-wide bull run, when the value of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptographic assets skyrocketed. Any claims, statistics, or general information should be verified with the respective providers. For a detailed list of our advertising partners and more on our monetization strategies, refer to our full advertiser disclosure.