Indian crypto exchange, Coinsecure has announced that it will repay its customers their stolen BTC and promised to give any person that will help to recover the bitcoins a 10% bounty, the Economic Times reports. The exchange has claimed that the theft was an inside job with a chief security officer being the major suspect.
In a statement, the crypto exchange confirmed losing 438.31859715 BTC on 8th April which is equivalent to about Rs. 20 crore ($3,067,220). Apparently, the thieves stole the coins from some offline wallet holding customers’ funds. The exchange has approximately 2 million users, but “only 11,000 were reportedly affected by the theft which is now the biggest crypto theft in India,” the news outlet conveyed.
The exchange, which has since halted all withdrawals and deposits, issued a statement on Friday saying that “We’re seeking help from all our users and the Bitcoin community to identify the hackers or for any information which can help us recover the funds…We’ll issue a 10% bounty to the BTC community for help given for recovery of the BTC.”
The 10% percent bounty promised to any person that helps the exchange recover the BTC is about 20 million rupees, which is about $306,722.
Where did the BTC go?
The Indian exchange revealed that the address to which the stolen coins were sent is 1BaEJquitskdXcTj53Uy6PuUtJ5a8ETWpA. 973 transactions via this address have been reported at the time of writing this piece, and the final coin balance is 139.42094629 BTC.
The Economic Times revealed that “the BTC was transferred to the thieves’ wallet in small tranches within two days after which they were sent to several addresses. Coinsecure claims the theft was an inside job with Amitabh Saxena, the chief security officer, being the major suspect. The exchange requested police in Delhi to seize the security officer’s passport, fearing he might leave the country.”
Coinsecure filed a report with the Cyber Crime Cell in Delhi under Section 66 of the IT and IPC Act, and law enforcement officers are currently looking into the theft. News18 reports that “the company’s servers have also been seized in a bid to get more information on the theft with several senior officials being called for questioning.”
“The exchange tried tracking the hackers, but after stealing the wallet, the hackers had erased their data log making it had for the exchange to find out anything about the BTC transfers,” the news source wrote.
Repayment plan
On Saturday, the exchange announced that when they recover the coins, its customers will receive their BTC as per the balances they held. The company, however, warned that if they could not recover the stolen bitcoins, then the lock-in rates as of April 9th will be applied, with 10 percent of each customer’s coin balance returned in bitcoins and the other 90 percent in INR.
“Details regarding the repayment procedures will be issued next week since we’re planning on getting back online and helping with the withdrawals of BTC and INR balances. We’re also waiting for a go-ahead from authorities,” Coinsecure explained.
