Blockchain Investigation: Bitpaction Exchange
Are you a potential victim of this crime? Help us build a case, report relevant information here.
Update 7/8/2018 1200UTC
This hack has been confirmed and the theft of assets has been verified. The unauthorized individuals are currently moving stolen tokens to exchanges.
Case: Bitpaction Centralized Exchange
Open Date: 7/3/2018
Status: Confirmed Theft (7/8/2018)
Bitpaction is a centralized exchange established in late Q1 2018 — Early Q2 2018, raising initial funds through an ICO. There is little information regarding their total raise or the team behind the project. Their ICO was held from 2/1/2018–2/28/2018 and is officially listed as Singapore based.
Bitpaction found many users through small cap projects that were not listed on Top 10 exchanges. They grew their base though bounty programs and airdrops to members.
The bitpaction team is nearly anonymous, and we are unable to confirm the team members as real, living people. Listed as team members are:
Sonny Cheung — CEO
Allen D — CTO
Oliver Zhang — Marketing Director (also listed as COO on LinkedIn)
Eileen W — Marketing Manager
Zoe Z — Finanace Mananger
James D — Chief Architect
Jason Lo — Information Security
There are currently 42 tokens listed for trade on their exchange under BTC and ETH pairings.
The last token to be listed was MCT (Master Contract Token — NEO) which opened for trading on 6/29/2018. Bitpaction opened trading for the token but never set the fees for MCT; we believe this to be the day of interest.
No official statement has come from Bitpaction since this date.
Users report being unable to withdraw tokens or facing exorbitant withdraw fees— .02BTC and .25ETH
Are you a victim of this crime? Help us build a case, report relevant information HERE
Case Analysis
BCB received reports from users on 6/29/2018 that their funds were shown as withdrawn, but the transfer was never received. Users were unable to make contact through email or social media platforms.
The BCB began monitoring this situation on 7/2/2018. Our team reached out to Bitpaction seeking an official explanation and we have received no response to our repeated requests.
We have been in contact with listed project teams who have told us that their requests for information are being read, but also not responded to.
We have reports that COO — Oliver Zhang and an individual known as ‘Ryan’ in business development have made statements; noting that they are no longer with the company. Additional details were not provided from these former employees.
A new Bitpaction telegram group was created by an individual named ‘Gina’ on 6/29/2018. No admin has ever made a statement on this channel.
Through blockchain forensics, the following information has been collected:
Ethereum and ERC Tokens — Wallet: 0xc17683c010F233Ce43bE86A0D12C2bDECE5C9bcb
The team has reviewed the wallet transactions of the above listed wallet; which we believe to be the exchanges central wallet. On the morning on 6/29/2018, significant assets were moved from the exchange wallet to: 0xf5b10BEba229BAAe47e033F2d5d190B13A6a1C13
These funds were subsequently moved to Binance within the hour. We are unable to track funds past this transaction.
Binance Transfer Totals for 6/29/2018:
28.1 ETH
16,000 IOST
300 ELF
125,000 ZIL
115 AE
Approximate Market Value: $24,880.70 USD
NEO and NEP Tokens — Wallet: AGUqYufjKVMroQ2s78KXzCmTSddsuG4hax
The team has reviewed the transactions of the above listed wallet; which we believe to be the Bitpaction central wallet. On the morning of 06/29/2018, NEO was moved from the central exchange wallet to: ANP3jz3CRMLr2vVUUjCsJwb7dVNZw5bjwK
These assets were subsequently moved to wallet AJzoeKrj7RHMwSrPQDPdv61ciVEYpmhkjk; a Binance deposit wallet.
Binance Transfer Totals: 124 NEO
Approximate Market Value: $5208.00 USD
NEP Tokens
During this same time frame, NEP-5 tokens were moved from the Bitpaction exchange wallet to: AYxzdtkkJC8vWPSTh6bJ9RBXnP8EPfa9Bs
NEP-5 tokens have not been liquidated. The wallet with stolen assets currently contains:
15,407,530 TOLL
1,135,000 NRVE
175,050 AVA
Approximate Market Value: $269,325 USD
Bitcoin
COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE REQUESTED
The investigative team has been unable to locate the exchanges main BTC wallet. Anyone with information on this address is asked to please submit through this form: https://goo.gl/forms/7KcPxncPxVfntfZN2
Remaining Deposits
Currently on deposit (7/7/2018) in known Bitpaction wallets are as follows (total individual holding valued <$1USD):
ETH / ERC
12.15 ETH
30,401 BBI
205,689 GENE
4,715 VSL
4,123 ZIL
34,385 GEM
380 POWR
153 BTM
78 ELF
6,674 OCN
41 LRC
399 IOST
27 EDG
<1 TIME
2 AE
7 ARN
<1 OMG
40 LATX
NEO/NEP-5
5,010 OBS
35,668 TOLL
135,854 NRVE
97,160 MCT
31,231 AVA
BTC
UNKNOWN Value
Anyone with information on the BTC address is asked to please submit through this form: https://goo.gl/forms/7KcPxncPxVfntfZN2
Conclusion
We urge all individuals to stop using this exchange immediately.
If possible, we encourage users with funds on deposit to attempt withdraw immediately. Withdraws of some assets is still possible.
We believe this exchange to currently have less than $10,000 in total assets on deposit.
It is our belief that the assets were moved out of the Bitpaction exchange unlawfully and are now recorded as stolen with the Blockchain Crime Bureau. We will continue to monitor assets and transactions.
Are you a potential victim of this case? Please report your losses / story to use here: https://goo.gl/forms/EVNhbNTTFmE3YiaH3
Last update: 7/7/2018 22:50:00
Do you know of scam, fraud or criminal act that we should investigate? Please report it here: https://goo.gl/forms/e0R4FYPWrj7snlGp1
NOTE: BCB is a private group of engineers, investigators and business leaders. Nothing stated above should be taken as fact and all individuals are innocent until proven guilty. If you are the victim of a crime, it should be reported to your local authorities without delay.
