The news around cryptocurrency exchanges are not always exciting, as the most common news is about stolen funds and illegal activity. Just recently, hackers stole $40 million worth of crypto from Binance. As Leaprate reported back in May, 2019: “The stolen amount is equal to 7,000 Bitcoins. Not only did the hackers steal the staggering amount of the “people’s currency”, but they also stole API tokens and two-factor authentication codes.
Now, an Irish-based exchange has literally vanished amidst a possible “international scam”. The news comes from Irish Mirror. The cryptocurrency exchange that disappeared is called Bitsane. Traders could operate with XRP, bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies until last week, when Bitsane vanished.
The consequences are of course grim for users, as people lost anywhere between EUR 5,000 and EUR 133,000.
These are some of the comments of the users who commented on their experience trying to transact on the exchange, as reported by Irish Mirrors:
I was trying to transfer XRP out to bitcoin or cash or anything and it kept saying ‘temporarily disabled.
I went back in to try to look at those tickets to see if they were still pending and you could no longer access Bitsane.
Launched in late 2018, Bitsane had more than 240,000 registered users as of the end of May, 2019. The “disappearance” of the exchange occurred on June 17th. The social website accounts of Bitsane were also deleted.
Not surprisingly, the employees of the exchange have also mysteriously vanished. The potential reason for the odd event: the exchange may have run an international scam. In addition, users found out that Bitsane was never registered with the Irish Central Bank in the first place.