Last Updated on 19/01/2021 by Drashti
Livecoin, the Russian cryptocurrency exchange, declared the closure of its operations. On December 24, 2020, after being the target of an alleged “carefully planned attack,” the exchange suspended its operations temporarily.
Livecoin, with around $16 million in regular transactions, is listed as the 173rd online cryptocurrency exchange. Since March 2014, the website has been active.
Apparently, during the attack, the hackers took over the exchange infrastructure and adjusted the cryptocurrency prices of the network to exorbitantly high values.
Livecoin initially exchanged Bitcoin for over $300,000, whereas the market price for BTC at the time was $24,000. Some users also speculated that “the hack’s” of Livecoin may be an exit scam.
The Russian exchange said on the Website of an alternative domain, that it had made a ‘hard decision to close the company’ and would repay the users any remaining money.
The media channels have been shifted from Livecoin[.]net to another site, Livecoin[.]news. The .net domain now reveals a message that the hackers supposedly leave on their homepage. After the big cyber attack by unknown hackers, the company said it had lost control of its servers last month.
On 18th January, the domain was displaying the following text :
The exchange is not able to resume operations due to financial and technological losses arising from an alleged attack on its servers at the end of 2020, according to Livecoin’s principal website. On January 16 Livecoin declared the Twitter shutdown (Livecoin.news.)
Livecoin has said that it wants to pay its customers the “remaining money” and asks users to contact the exchange by email to complete a check. Livecoin users must submit the user name and the registration date on the platform to start the process.
The exchange promised detailed instructions in response and indicated that claims for reimbursement were accepted by 17 March 2021. “No new applications will be accepted after this date,” said Livecoin.
When Livecoin is supposed to pay its customers, the exchange was not mentioned. Livecoin also warned users about non-official Livecoin chat groups which can spread wrong information and attempt to disappoint users.
“You are at great risk to participate in these groups, because we [do not have] groups,” Livecoin wrote, claiming his website to be the only official source of information. The organization has also said that an investigation is underway.
