Cryptopia Clients Receive $225 Million in Assets from Liquidators

Liquidators of the New Zealand exchange Cryptopia from the audit firm Grant Thornton have begun distributing funds in Bitcoin and Dogecoin to the platform’s clients.

According to a press release, over two days, more than 10,000 verified account holders received assets totaling 400 million NZD (~$225.4 million).

“Since the launch of the claims portal, the liquidators have been working to identify Cryptopia users so that assets could be returned in kind, in accordance with the court decision from March 2020. This complex process also included the recovery of the hacked crypto exchange and the reconciliation of millions of transactions from nearly 960,000 clients,” the statement reads.

The auditors will continue the reimbursement in line with the approved plan.

They anticipate that not all affected parties will seek compensation by the set deadline. Unclaimed assets will be used for additional distribution, which will allow the reimbursement in Bitcoin and Dogecoin to reach 100%.

In January 2019, the New Zealand exchange suffered a hack. Cryptopia estimated the damage at a maximum of 10% of all funds on the platform—about $16 million at the time. User assets worth $100 million were frozen.

In March, the platform resumed trading, and in April, it transferred half of the 457 listed cryptocurrencies to wallets with new private keys.

However, by May, Cryptopia ceased operations and initiated the liquidation process.

Back in 2021, a former employee of the exchange admitted to stealing cryptocurrency worth $170,000. The incident was unrelated to the hack.