Estonian Crypto Exchange Crex24 Accused of Concealing a Major Hack 

Crex24, a cryptocurrency exchange based out of Estonia, is facing some serious heat from its customers after operational changes have led them to believe that the firm is engaging in willful deceit. According to several users on social media, the exchange has suddenly shut down several altcoin pairings – a move that has led many of them to believe that it could be hiding a hack from them. 

A Discrepancy with Htmlcoins

Crex24’s users have confirmed that the exchange suddenly took down support for over 60 altcoins from its platform. The firm also reportedly shut down deposit and withdrawal services for most of its coins, all without giving prior notice or providing any explanation for what it was doing. Despite several calls for the exchange to provide more clarification for its recent behavior, the company now seems to be working on drumming up more business than giving users any clarity over what could be happening. 

Crex24 Exchange Accused of Hiding Hack From Customers

An anonymous Crex24 user have identified a suspicious movement of 1.3 billion Htmlcoins from its wallet

— ViCFET (@VideoCourseFET) March 8, 2020

Given that such suspicious behavior is typical of exchanges that have suffered a security breach, users have begun to suspect that a similar fate has befallen the exchange, and it is simply looking to sweep things under the rug. 

Crex24 is one of the many moderate crypto exchanges, with about $2.6 million in trading volumes over the past ay. It ranks 137th amongst exchanges in the world – a feat which, admittedly, isn’t so bad. However, apart from the testimony of its customers, Brazilian crypto news source Livecoin recently reported that an anonymous user on the platform had identified some suspicious movement of Htmlcoin- an altcoin – on the platform. The user explained that the exchange froze his funds back in February, causing him to lose about $32,000 worth of different digital assets. 

Later, Crex24 announced that a hacker stole 200 million Htmlcoins (worth about $11,200 at the time) from its wallets. However, another anonymous source reportedly claimed that he had found 1.3 billion Htmlcoins (worth about $72,800 at the time) being withdrawn from Crex24’s wallets and transferred to rival crypto exchange Hitbtc. 

The asset, which was only added to Crex24’s platform, has now been delisted in addition to several altcoins. Adding to the suspicions, it’s worth noting that the exchange has ramped up its Know-your-Customer (KYC) and identification verification standards since the rumors started to circulate. 

Bitfinex is On the Hook for a Similar Issue 

While exchanges tend to try rectifying security breaches and hacks by keeping this from users for a while, it gets to the point that hiding things become simply impossible. However, while most of them understand when things get to that point and make changes, it would seem that Crex24 is willing to go down with this ship. 

Secretive behavior is still one of the many issues dogging Bitfinex – one of the world’s top exchanges. According to a case brought by the Office of New York’s Attorney General last year, the exchange had suffered a security breach of mishandled $850 million in customer funds and had tried to conceal that deficit by drawing on its Tether reserves instead of coming clean to its customers. 

Both Tether Limited and Bitfinex (both of which are owned by the same parent company) have come out to deny the allegations, but they’re also still tussling with the NYAG over whether or not their account of events is right.