Unfortunately, crypto exchanges do get hacked from time to time, to the point where it’s become a natural part of the digital currency landscape. However, there are protocols in place designed to make traders feel secure should the worst happen. Despite these industry-wide measures, MapleChange has decided to go down its own path, leading many to believe that its recent hack wasn’t actually that, but an exit scam instead.
In the initial hours following the hack, it decided to shut down all of its social media channels and take its website offline. But now it’s beginning to backtrack and reinstate its social media channels to offer some level of comfort to users who lost everything.
Due to a bug, some people have managed to withdraw all the funds from our exchange. We are in the process of a thorough investigation for this. We are extremely sorry that it has to come to end like this. Until the investigation is over, we cannot refund anything.
— MapleChange (@MapleChangeEx) October 28, 2018
Handing Back the Shitcoins, Keeping the Good Coins
The exchange has yet to post any evidence of this alleged hack and this is causing a lot of controversy. It very much appears as if the owners of the exchange had planned the exit strategy hoping people wouldn’t really care due to the fact the exchange mostly dealt with shitcoins (cryptocurrencies worth virtually nothing). However, a huge storm began to brew online and the exchange can now magically refund all shitcoins, but no BTC or LTC – sounds fishy to us!
We CANNOT refund any BTC or LTC funds unfortunately. We will try our best to refund everything else.
— MapleChange (@MapleChangeEx) October 28, 2018
Very Odd Decisions Made
In the process of refunding investors, MapleChange has made some very weird choices. The one that stands out the most is the fact that it’s decided to hand back all remaining shitcoins to the projects rather than the coin owners. Usually in a case like this, an exchange would freeze all assets in cold storage until the bug has been fixed and the investigation completed. By rushing through the entire process just makes this “hack” smell like an exit scam. It very much seems as if the exchange owners want to run away and hide with their illicit gains, while coin developers sort out the mess it has left behind.
We are sending all of the coin developers the wallets containing the coins we have left. So far, LMO and CCX have been handed over the funds.
— MapleChange (@MapleChangeEx) October 28, 2018
Not Your Keys, Not Your Crypto
We will say this until we are blue in the face, if you don’t have the keys, you don’t own the crypto. The number one rule of crypto trading is to never hold your coins on the crypto exchange, and this is why. Always pull your cryptos to a wallet you have control over, whether it’s a hardware wallet, paper wallet, or software wallet.
Ledger and SatoshiLabs are coming out with new hardware wallets all the time that are affordable and reliable, so there is no excuse to leave cryptos on an exchange. If you’re worried about security, the new Cobo Vault will self-destruct if someone tampers with it – a far better crypto storage solution than trusting an exchange.
While the MapleChange saga is still rumbling on, it’s unlikely that all investors will see their money again. The circumstances of how the exchange collapsed are simply too suspicious. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) get involved, as given the current situation it’s clear that a legal firestorm is looming.
