Cryptopia recovers assets after $24 million theft hack

TL;DR Breakdown

• Cryptopia had a violent cyber-attack in 2019.
• The exchange has paid out more than $15 million in research.

Cryptopia, a crypto company located in Christchurch, New Zealand, experienced one of the largest thefts in the crypto industry last January 2019. After this robbery, the exchange lost more than $24 million worth of cryptocurrencies.

According to reports, Cryptopia legislators have spent around $15 million in legal payments, a massive figure.

Crypto company in New Zealand still suffering from hacked funds

Cryptopia, previously one of the most used crypto exchanges in New Zealand, still suffers from the hack it experienced in 2019. Almost 2 years after the event, the agents appointed by the company, Malcolm Morre and David Ruscoe, have paid around $15 million in legal expenses and about $2.7 million for other problems. Morre and Ruscoe have also earned about 4 million in merits for investigations and the funds protection.

Both settlement agents have also spent almost two years managing the complaints interface, supervising the data verification system, and consumer service. Cryptopia showed progress in its system during the last semester of 2021, where data verification with at least 180 countries where the exchange operates is reflected.

However, agents confess that about 80 percent of customers entered the complaint system. This indicated that the exchange had a violent cyber-attack that almost knocked it out of the game.

Cryptopia hack investigations ongoing

Although Cryptopia is reactivating its operations after the cyber-attack, this does not mean that the researchers have forgotten about the fact. According to reports, the police authority is on the trail of a group of hackers that possibly perpetuated theft in 2019. The agents also do not rule out that the stolen funds were sent to exchanges from Singapore, Malaysia, or even the United States.

Settlement agents at Cryptopia also confess that they had been given $50,000 in legal payments by a third-party source who did not want to return their data despite being required by the court. However, that company had to pay a fine of $7,500 after it admitted the violation to the court.

Also, a former exchange worker extracted $250,000 while doing the job. This individual was found and sentenced in the first week of 2022. However, the agents did not clarify how many years the sentence given was.

Crypto thefts are becoming frequent globally in countries where virtual commerce is a novelty. However, some agencies continue to investigate these cases to catch these cybercriminals.