On April 12, 2018 one of India’s oldest Cryptocurrency exchange Coinsecure announced the loss of 438 BTC, worth 19 Crore INR at the time. Today it wil be worth 26 Crores. The exchange suspected their CSO Amitabh Saxena of siphoning the Bitcoin. 2 weeks later, Coinsecure is getting ready to disburse customer funds.
Here’s a quick update on what is happening right now with Coinsecure:
Disbursement of Funds
In an update from Coinsecure dated April 14, the plan for disbursement of user funds is revealed. Coinsecure announced that for INR holders, the 100% INR amount will be refunded. For BTC holders, 10% of their BTC holdings will be refunded in BTC, while the rest will be refunded in INR. The rates for calculating INR will be locked to April 9, 2018, the first time Coinsecure went in maintenance mode.
Clearly, users were not happy about it as BTC prices have climbed up since then. It would mean a loss to users who planned on holding their Bitcoins. The same was communicated to Coinsecure by users and since then Coinsecure has changed its stance.
In a recent update, Coinsecure acknowledges the user apprehension on the disbursement plan and ‘assures’ users that it will be changed. The update says,
“…we’d like you to know that we are re-evaluating the same with the help of our legal team and the authorities to determine what would be the best way forward, keeping in mind the best interest of our customers”
Whether or not the ratio of BTC:INR funds disbursal has changed, we are not sure yet. However, in the latest update, Coinsecure has called for a final resolution this weekend.
“We’d like to inform you, that we have started work on the claims process…. We are hoping that by the following weekend, we should get started and you should be able to submit your claims withdrawal requests.”
Telegram Groups Heating Up
Coinsecure has an official telegram group which shared the ‘weekend update’ as well. The @coinsecureindia group is buzzing with activity ever since the update was shared.
On other hand, a smaller group has been created by Coinsecure customers for discussions regarding, no points for guessing, the hack.
This ‘backup’ group of investors called Coinsecure_backup has about 40 members (including me) speculating the current state of the lost BTC. One of the users showed me the group with an intention to spread awareness of the same via our platform.
Where are the Funds
Coin Crunch had paid close attention to the lost BTC that were moving around. The hacker or the suspect Amitabh Saxena has moved the BTC via multiple Bech32 addresses, distributing them in dust and later recollecting all of them in a wallet with address: 16QKc9QC7wQoMyhf2DjWfSYapvLTsktWe4.
The BTC is being spent again from the address. Coinsecure is working with the authorities to track down the Bitcoins but if you have any leads, you can earn an INR 2 crore bounty.
Whether Coinsecure returns the Bitcoin or INR, it remains to be seen. However, this should be a valuable lesson to all the investors that if you’re planning to hold, its better to move your Crypto out of an exchange to a private, preferably offline wallet.
Do you think Coinsecure should return the BTC instead of INR? Let us know in the comments below
Read More:
CoinSecure loses Bitcoin worth 22 Crores, What We Know So Far
Three Major Indian Exchanges Receive Legal Notice for not Sharing Founder Details on Website
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