This article was published on May 31, 2019

Shitcoin factory Cryptopia owes over $3M to creditors, staff, and hodlers

It's not looking good


Shitcoin factory Cryptopia owes over $3M to creditors, staff, and hodlers

Liquidators of now defunct cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia have revealed that it owes investors, creditors, and staff a total of over $3 million.

Grant Thornton New Zealand published its first liquidators report earlier today which outlined that creditors are owed a total of $2.78 million. Staff are also owed $384,000 for unpaid salaries, holiday pay, and other unclaimed expenses.

Creditors fall into one of two categories, secured or unsecured. There are two secured creditors affected by Cryptopia’s collapse, Dell New Zealand Ltd and Coca-Cola Amatil (NZ) Ltd. These companies are owed a total of $912,000.

As it stands, there are 69 unsecured creditors that are claiming to be owed a total of around $1.6 million. Grant Thornton expects this number to rise as more individuals affected by the exchange’s collapse come forward.

The 💜 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

However, liquidators are still in the process of reconciling customers’ holdings. When this is complete, liquidators should be able to give a more accurate figure of how much money Cryptopia users are actually owed. The value of customer holdings cannot be confirmed at this point in time.

According to the report, Cryptopia has just over $1.1 million in assets; however, owing $2.75 million leaves the company with a deficit of over $1.6 million. The value of the company’s cryptocurrency assets remains unknown.

Earlier this year, Cryptopia was hit by a hack which saw the exchange experience “significant losses.” Subsequent reports state that the exchange actually lost a total of $16 million worth of digital assets.

Even so, in March, the exchange managed to digitally defibrillate itself back to life and resumed trading. Though its second coming was brief, after it officially shut up shop a couple of months later, taking 500 shitcoins with it.

Affected users are advised to stay updated with the latest developments via the websites of Cryptopia and Grant Thornton New Zealand.

Indeed, it’s going to be a little while longer before we know exactly how much money creditors are owed. Whether they’ll get any funds back, though, is a whole other question.

Get the TNW newsletter

Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

Also tagged with