Did Nigerian Wallet Service Satowallet Just Pull Off A Crypto Scam?

The Nigerian crypto community was shocked recently as a crypto wallet service provider called Satowallet allegedly pulled off an exit scam.

Problems since April

Satowallet didn’t vanish overnight. The problems on the crypto wallet service provider started occurring in April with some withdrawal issues. Users have been complaining about the problems in some Telegram threads as well, asking for more information about their funds. The company said that they have temporarily disabled withdrawals because of technical issues. These allegations came right at the time when the company announced its plans for “SatowalletEX” its own cryptocurrency exchange.

The users suggest that the company has misappropriated their coins and pulled off an exit scam, taking away crypto deposits worth about $1 million. However, the company CEO is laying the blame on OVH.com a data center provider. He says that a technical problem with the data center provider led to a loss of client coins.

Satowallet first appeared on the crypto scene in May 2017 and claimed to be run by Abuja, Nigeria based company Blockchain Tech Hub. It, however, was said to be operating out of Dubai, UAE. It was offering a multi-currency crypto wallet to the users alongside a cryptocurrency exchange service. It had support for 60 digital coins, including top crypto coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin.

What does the company suggest?

According to Satowallet, scam artists took advantage of the technical issues if the firm and stole client funds. The company then said that the vulnerabilities have been fixed but quickly implemented KYC measures on its platform. This led to further delays as KYC verification required several days to complete, allowing the firm some more time. The company then said that it had started manual withdrawals. However, last month, the platform vanished.

Satowallet CEO said that none of the 8 servers of the company, which hosted its websites, apps, and wallets nodes were up. He reportedly contacted data center OVH.com which has been handling their servers for 2 years. The data center got the website back up but users could not find their coins in the wallet. OVH didn’t provide an explanation for the same and didn’t point to server abuse too. Satowallet chief is accusing the company of stealing the coins while the users have been swindled out of their money. Some are claiming that the wallet providers defrauded the investors via an exit scam.