Today, reports concerning Cryptopia going into liquidation was confirmed by Cryptopia’s assigned liquidator, professional services firm Grant Thornton in New Zealand.
The exchange also confirmed the news on its Twitter account and on its website. This report comes months after the exchange lost millions to hackers.
At first, Cryptopia went back to business after the hack, management believed the exchange would weather the storm, overcome losses and in the end start making a profit.
Liquidators already working
The firm has already assigned the job of liquidation to David Ruscoe and Russell Moore from New Zealand’s Grant Thornton. According to the report, they were appointed yesterday May 14, 2019.
The exchange in a statement said that the liquidation process is in the best interest of its “customers, staff, and stakeholders.”
The liquidation process is however expected to take months instead of weeks due to the several complexities. Grant Thornton will be contacting Cryptopia’s customers, suppliers and stakeholders very soon to inform them about its appointment in the nearest future. According to the liquidators, an initial report will be made available on Grant Thornton’s website in about one week time.
An alarming increase in crypto hacks
Crypto hacks have become a serious issue with digital assets and crypto exchanges. Cryptopia exchange announced it has been hacked on Jan 14, 2019, and barely two weeks later, the exchange lost another $180,000 in Ether.
After Cryptopia got hacked, Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), advised crypto investors to store their digital assets on the most secure exchanges instead of storing them in their own wallets. This was before Binance suffered a $40 million hack.
Binance customers, however, had no cause for alarm as the exchange had a SAFU system (Secure Asset Fund for Users). The SAFU is an emergency insurance fund used for situations like this.
Hacks on crypto exchanges have also made several governments put in place strict regulations to guide the activities of crypto exchanges. A few weeks ago, Japan announced plans to stiffen regulations against crypto exchanges in order to ensure the safety of customers assets.
