Ireland-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitsane ceased operations, and its management stole deposits of almost 250 thousand users, reports The Forbes.
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As the newspaper notes, Bitsane LP in the past was listed as one of the trading platforms approved by Ripple. In addition, in January 2018, CNBC published an article about Bitsane, which among other things said that the exchange is a good option for traders who want to trade XRP before the token is placed on other large sites like Coinbase.
It is reported that problems with the withdrawal of funds Bitsane users began to experience in May of this year. As a reason, the exchange itself cited technical problems. By June 17, the website of the exchange and its accounts in social networks were deleted, and the letters that users sent were returned because the recipient was not found.
Also, Forbes tried to contact Bitsane's CEO Aidas Rupsis and technical director of the exchange Dmitry Prudnikov, but without success. Prudnikov's profile on LinkedIn also turned out to be deleted.
As of May 30, 2019, Bitsane's client base totaled 246 thousand people, the daily trading volumes of the exchange, according to CoinMarketCap data from March 31, exceeded $7 million.
In the groups that Bitsane users created in Telegram and Facebook, it is said that on average, traders lost up to $5,000. Also, Forbes quotes a person who did not wish to say his name from the United States, who, until the exchange disappeared, kept on it 150,000 in XRP and bitcoins.
It is reported that many Bitsane users from US have already filed complaints to the FBI, but it is not clear how they will be able to recover the lost money.