Bitsane, the Crypto Exchange and XRP Refuge Perform a Disappearing act, Scamming 246,000 Subscribers
Bitsane, the Ireland-based cryptocurrency vanished without an inkling last week, possibly getting away with hundreds of thousands of users’ assets invested in them.
Reports by account holders stated that their futile efforts to withdraw XRP, bitcoins, and other cryptocurrencies started in May, with Bitsane’s support team stating that they were unable to process their requests due to “temporary technical reasons”. Their websites went offline by June 17’ with their Twitter and Facebook accounts being scrapped from existence. Emails to various Bitsane accounts were returned as undelivered.
Those affected by the scam are now comparing notes in a group chat with approximately 100 members on the messaging app Telegram and in a comparable Facebook group. Sources close to them now claim that most users lost up to $5,000, elsewhere in the U.S. another person claimed to have had $150,000 stored in XRP and bitcoin in Bitsane. In the group chat, most users wish they stored their XRP tokens on their own crypto wallets instead of trusting Bitsane exchange.
This latest incident sheds light on a volatile industry that has had doubts cast upon it as an asset management strategy. GateHub and Binance have had their firewalls contravened this past year, but a complete act of disappearance with no notice or explanation is a new scamming technique.
According to a website, Bitsane had 246,000 users registered as of May 30. That was the last time their homepage was saved on the Internet Archives Machine. Their daily trading volume was $7 million as of March 31, in regards to CoinMarketCap.
“I was trying to transfer XRP out to bitcoin or cash or anything, and it kept saying ‘temporarily disabled.’ I knew right away there was some kind of problem,” says the user who claims to have lost $150,000 and asks to remain anonymous. “I went back in to try to look at those tickets to see if they were still pending, and you could no longer access Bitsane.”
Bitsane attracted investors in the cryptocurrency market of 2017 and at the beginning of the year 2018 by allowing them to buy and sell Ripple’s XRP which was delisted at the time on Coinbase, the most trending U.S. cryptocurrency exchange.
Regarding a press release, Bitsane went live in November 2016 registering in Dublin as Bitsane LP in the leadership of CEO Aidas Rupsys, and its chief technological officer as Dmitry Prudnikov. Prudnikov’s LinkedIn account has been terminated, and neither of the two could be reached for comment.
Image courtesy of: TNW