The journey of now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange, Cryptopia’s account holders following the security breach has not been an easy one. However, the aggrieved customers have been handed a boost this morning as the exchange’s liquidator, Grant Thornton revealed that the launch of the Cryptopia claims portal is all set to start the process of returning account holders’ property.
Grant Thornton official website stated,
“Please follow the instructions to register as an account holder. We are asking you to confirm certain details of your Cryptopia account so as to ensure that only verified account holders can register in the claims process. Given the sheer volume of emails sent, these emails will continue to be delivered through this week.”
This news follows the New Zealand branch of accountancy firm’s earlier comments wherein it described that the claims registration process was a “mammoth task,” and had asserted that it would open “by the end of the year”.
During the same time, the liquidators had also revealed that it would reach out to the 960,000 account holders through official channels, and would authenticate claimants’ identities and account information.
The Twitter crypto, however, was far from pleased. Responding to the latest update, a few users in Cryptopia’s original Twitter post alleged that they were unable to submit the verification form while others had issues with their password and username.
One of the users also tweeted,
Class action law suit against liquidators over leaked data breach. Ignored everyone for years now suddenly want to help… or they want you to tick that box allowing them to share data (already shared). Tick and you can’t make claim against them. Ignore this trickery
— Clean Up Tickets (@TicketsClean) December 9, 2020
This could be referred to the bizarre turn that Cryptopia’s liquidation process took earlier in November after which Grant Thornton issued a warning to the exchange’s account holders as the court staff at the Christchurch High Court mistakenly released the exchange’s customer data, which were highly confidential and sensitive, to an unauthorized third party which is called Cryptopia Rescue. Additionally, the Cryptopia Rescue project has made several allegations about Grant Thornton’s competence to conduct the Cryptopia receivership.
A glimpse of what exactly happened more than a year ago: In early 2019, Cryptopia fell victim to a security breach. The hackers managed to steal $11 million worth of digital assets from the platform. Despite attempts to re-open two months later, Cryptopia was forced into liquidation in May of the same year.