After confirming a hack back in January where the New Zealand based exchange lost over 9% of its holdings, Cryptopia has once again shut down its services after an 8 hour downtime this time for good.
Visiting the official Cryptopia website, users are greeted with the following message:
“David Ruscoe and Russell Moore from Grant Thornton New Zealand were yesterday appointed liquidators of Cryptopia
Despite the efforts of management to reduce cost and return the business to profitability, it was decided the appointment of liquidators was, in the best interests of customers, staff and other stakeholders.
The liquidators are focused on securing the assets for the benefit of all stakeholders. While this process and investigations take place, trading on the exchange is suspended.
“Given the complexities involved we expect the investigation to take months rather than weeks.”
The liquidators are also working with independent experts and the relevant authorities with regards to the company’s obligations.
Grant Thornton will be contacting all customers and suppliers about its appointment in the next few days.
Further enquiries, please email [email protected]”
The above message was posted after an 8 hour downtime where users suspected that another hack occurred. Initially, Cryptopia reopened deposits and withdrawals back in April which allowed users to claim a certain percentage of their balances.
Despite their attempt to resume business as usual and with the recent price rise of cryptocurrency, Cryptopia was unable to “to reduce cost and return the business to profitability.” As such, liquidators were appointed who will work with the exchange to secure assets and return as much of them as possible to affected users.
Cryptopia Limited appoints Grant Thornton as Liquidators – https://t.co/A35rq1Jls3
— Cryptopia Exchange (@Cryptopia_NZ) May 15, 2019
As is usually the case, such an investigation will take many months to complete. Users should expect some sort of contact from Grant Thornton for further steps, most likely via the email used on the exchange.