The liquidators of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia are beginning to distribute millions to users affected by an attack nearly six years ago.
The liquidating company of Cryptopia, Grant Thornton, officially announced on December 20 the start of distributions to over 10K verified account holders affected by the Cryptopia attack in 2019.
In the last two days, verified account holders of Bitcoin (BTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE) have received cryptocurrency distributions worth at least $400 million New Zealand, which is $225 million, according to information from the liquidating company.
This payout marks a significant milestone in the liquidation process of Cryptopia since Grant Thornton launched the Cryptopia claims portal in 2020.
Additional distribution plan from Grant Thornton
After this initial distribution, the liquidators will continue to follow the approved process, including notifying about the cutoff date before distributing the remaining BTC, DOGE, and other coins to account holders, according to Grant Thornton.
“There may be an additional distribution for account holders, allowing them to receive up to 100% of their stored value from ‘unclaimed holdings’, from account holders who have not registered on the claims portal after the cutoff dates,” the liquidator announced.
Grant Thornton encourages all remaining Cryptopia account holders to register on the claims portal and complete the necessary steps to qualify for upcoming distributions.
“Additional distributions for newly verified users are planned for the New Year,” Grant Thornton added.
Cryptopia lost $16 million to hackers in 2019
Founded in 2014, Cryptopia was an international cryptocurrency exchange and one of the first cryptocurrency exchange services in New Zealand.
At its peak, Cryptopia had around 1.4 million registered users as of 2018 and was the largest cryptocurrency exchange in New Zealand. The exchange was also one of the first issuers of stablecoins in the country, launching the NZed (NZDT) stablecoin backed by NZD in May 2017.
Following the Cryptopia attack in January 2019, initial analysis raised questions about the exchange losing approximately $16 million in various cryptocurrency assets due to the incident.
In May 2019, Cryptopia's liquidator, Grant Thornton, published an estimated report on the company's financial status, stating that the hacked exchange owed a total of $4.2 million to creditors.
