Bitsane, an Irish exchange once touted by CNBC back in 2018, has vanished into the ether, taking the funds of 246,000 users with it. The website has been offline for at least two weeks, with the same going for its social media presence, six weeks after withdrawal issues began to arise for customers. The time put this down to “technical reasons” at the time, a phrase which is normally enough to send a shiver of fear down any exchange user’s spine, and it seems that indeed the premonitions of doom have been correct.
CNBC Endorsement
CNBC advertised the services of Bitsane in January 2018 when they famously posted an article about how to buy XRP after the token had already risen 860% in the prior three weeks, with the amount of people following CNBC’s advice crashing the Bitsane systems. Bitsane went live around November 2016 under the guidance of CEO Aidas Rupsys and CTO Dmitry Prudnikov, both of whom have closed all communications channels, while Prudnikov has also erased his LinkedIn profile. Around 2018, when the exchange was at its peak, a review site warned that, “Bitsane is overall relatively opaque compared to many more active exchanges, with a minimal social media presence and a more obscure team than other, more publicity-friendly exchanges.”
@robotodd you recommended in January 2018 that readers purchase Ripple / XRP through Bitsane. Why haven’t you reported that that exchange has since disappeared off the planet and stolen everyone’s money? Including mine?
— Pat Davies (@Patdavies20000) June 24, 2019
Another Cautionary Tale
Two weeks ago, the communications team behind a company allegedly associated with the exchange, Azbit, wrote a Medium post outlining that they had nothing to do with the defunct exchange, stating, “Azbit is as deceived as Bitsane’s victims are”. According to the post they were discussing acquiring the code for the site but that Bitsane cut off communications and the deal fell through. With seemingly no way of communicating those behind Bitsane, it seems that we have to write off the exchange as another in the long list of crypto entities that ran out of money in the bear market and exit scammed with whatever user funds they had left, with QuadrigaCX being the shining example. This serves as another example of why users should keep as little as possible on any exchange, and only trust reputable ones.
Dear friends, Azbit has nothing to do with Bitsane.
The second thing we have to say – Azbit is as deceived as Bitsane’s victims are.
???
Don’t make hasty conclusions and let us tell you what is REALLY going on.Please, check the detailed explanation?https://t.co/Y7uo3hnGw0 pic.twitter.com/wN6b4QJWnw
— azbit.news (@azbit_news) June 13, 2019
