Cryptopia Limited (in Liquidation)

Peter Kaminski
Nov 6 · 3 min read

As they say, cryptocurrency is risky, and you may lose everything.

Cropped image of a house fully engulfed in flame. Photo by Pixabay, via Pexel.
Cropped image of a house fully engulfed in flame. Photo by Pixabay, via Pexel.

I figured I’d share a pointer to a cautionary tale, in case anybody needs a frightening cryptocurrency story to tell friends or family, and doesn’t have one at hand.

Cryptopia was a cryptocurrency exchange based in New Zealand. It was “hacked to death” starting in January 2019 and it (or its assets, at least) is now in the process of going through bankruptcy and liquidation in New Zealand, having gone from a heady phase of crypto-optimism animation, through a phase of shock and dismay, and now into a slow, methodical, legal and forensic mortuary.

Millions of dollars of customers’ crypto holdings are at stake. The liquidators have been working steadily to preserve customer records, to do forensic analysis to figure out who owns what, and have scoped potential actions to trace and or freeze stolen crypto assets. If they are ever able to return funds, customers would have to do or re-do a Know Your Client (KYC) identity process before receiving any funds.

I’ve got (or had, lol) a small amount of BTC, ETH, and ZCL (ZClassic) with Cryptopia.

As I remember, I wanted a small amount of ZCL, and Cryptopia was the best place for me to buy it, back in the day. For your — or perhaps my — edification, ZCL is currently a bust, its current price being 1,200X smaller than its all-time high price.

I think Cryptopia was also a convenient place for ETH back then, although I don’t remember why anymore.

I don’t have enough assets there to really worry about; the events of this year and my stake are still well within my risk tolerance envelope. But it has been interesting and thought-provoking meditation getting the dry, methodical emails from the liquidators, as they perform the last rites.

From dust we all come; to dust we all shall return.


From: no-reply@cryptopia.co.nz
Subject: Cryptopia Limited (in Liquidation) update 25 October 2019
Date: Wednesday, November 06, 2019 05:23

Dear Cryptopia Stakeholder,

You are being emailed as part of the Liquidation of Cryptopia Limited.

The liquidators have applied to the High Court of New Zealand for directions regarding the legal status of customer holdings and the ability to hold Cryptocurrency on trust. The Liquidators have asked the Court to appoint two Queen’s Counsel for these proceedings.

The Court has approved the Queen’s Counsel appointment and service of this order must be effected by the liquidators sending an email with a link to these proceedings for all potential trust beneficiaries and creditors that Cryptopia held email addresses for.

The Court orders and an update from the liquidators can be found at the link below:

https://www.grantthornton.co.nz/update-for-cryptopia-account-holders-25-october-2019/

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response.

Peter Kaminski

Written by

Friendly, helpful web technologist and entrepreneur.

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