- Cryptopia victims may be on the verge of getting some of their funds back
- The exchange’s liquidator announced that a claimant platform should be ready by the end of the year
- Some $16 million in user funds was stolen from the exchange in 2019, with $170 million left on the platform also tied up
Cryptopia liquidator Grant Thornton plans to open a victim claim portal by the end of the year, paving the way for those who suffered losses in the 2019 hack to finally get some of their money back. The process has taken so long to sort out due to the complexity of the cryptocurrency exchange’s operation, including the fact that user funds were commingled in a few wallets rather than being separated.
$16 Million Stolen and $170 Million Stuck on Platform
Cryptopia was hacked in early January 2019, with around $16 million in cryptocurrency stolen from the exchange and some $170 million user funds left on the platform. After trying to resume operations for several weeks, the exchange eventually went into liquidation in May 2019, trapping the funds of all who still had them on the platform.
Grant Thornton has spent the past 18 months trying to work through the mess that Cryptopia’s management left behind, with user funds bundled together and a lack of accurate record keeping, meaning it was almost impossible to say who owned what.
Cryptopia Victims See Light at the End of the Tunnel
Finally however it seems that they have made headway, with the liquidator announcing on Friday that a claiming portal would open “by the end of 2020.” As a result they are now accepting registrations from anyone who wishes to claim in advance of the opening of the portal, although the chances of getting back everything they had left on the platform are slim – Cryptopia has a number of creditors, including the New Zealand Inland Revenue and possibly Grant Thornton themselves – meaning that users might be in for a nasty shock when they finally find out what they’re getting back.
