11.8 Million XRP and Cardano (ADA) Stolen From Singapore-Based Bitrue, Crypto Holders Accuse Ireland’s Bitsane of Exit Scam

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Hackers and scam artists continue to plague the crypto world, with a Singaporean crypto exchange reporting a multi-million dollar XRP and Cardano hack and an Irish exchange disappearing off the face of the earth with its users’ assets.

Singapore-based Bitrue announced in a Twitter thread on Wednesday that a hacker accessed the personal funds of about 90 users and stole 9.3 million XRP and 2.5 million Cardano (ADA), worth about $3.8 million and $219,000, respectively. 

“Dear Bitrue Users, 

First of all, please let us assure you that this situation is under control, 100% of lost funds will be returned to users, and we are reviewing our security measures and policies to ensure this does not happen again.

At approximately 1am June 27 (GMT+8), a hacker exploited a vulnerability in our Risk Control team’s 2nd review process to access the personal funds of about 90 Bitrue users.”

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Seven hours after their initial announcement, Bitrue said the exchange EXMO had frozen some of the funds the hackers had stolen. A few hours later, the company announced that login and trading services, as well as credit-card purchases, were live again. 

Bitrue says it has replaced customers’ lost assets and that it is working to resume withdrawals and deposits with maximum security. It expects to resume all functions by July 3rd.

Meanwhile, Forbes reports that the Ireland-based Bitsane disappeared last week. Account holders reportedly began having difficulties with withdrawals in May, and then the exchange’s website, Twitter account and Facebook page all went offline by June 17. 

According to a report by the Irish Mirror on Thursday more than 100 customers lost between $5,700 (€5,000) and $150,000 (€132,000).

Good afternoon. Much respect to your work. Question: I'm a US Army veteran, missing over $7000 USD worth of crypto in bitsane. Considering Dmitry Prudnikov, I must ask if you have advise about my hard earned investment, before I contact every news agency in the country.

— Shane Johnson (@MrShaneson) June 26, 2019

@zebpaysupport sir I am your customer from India. I transferred approx 6400 XRP through my ZEBPAY account to BITSANE EXCHANGE. But Bitsane Exchange do a big scam. They closed their exchange without any notice. Now how should I recover my XRP. Please help me. Many Victims

— Vikas Tak (@VikasTa96623196) June 26, 2019

The exchange was once promoted on CNBC, mentioned on Ripple’s website, appeared at leading industry conference Consensus and listed on Crunchbase.

Ripple’s How to Buy XRP page in March 2019

Bitsane at Consensus

Bitsane, which launched in November 2016, supported XRP early on. It also listed BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC, DASH and BTG.

Despite signs of long-term legitimacy, Forbes says emails sent to Bitsane bounced back. The company reportedly registered as Bitsane LP under CEO Aidas Rupsys and chief technology officer Dmitry Prudnikov, whose LinkedIn account has now been deleted. 

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CoinMarketCap reports the exchange had a daily trading volume of about $7.2 million on March 31, and, as of May 30, the exchange claimed to have 246,000 registered users, some of whom have now formed a Facebook group to discuss the scam.

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