At the end of December 2020, the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Livecoin suddenly ceased operations and subsequently announced its closure.
Livecoin’s homepage shows that the exchange cannot continue to operate because its server was attacked at the end of 2020, causing financial and technical losses. On January 16, Livecoin announced its closure on Twitter and provided a link to its new domain name “Livecoin.news”. At the time of publication of this article, the domain name Livecoin.net before Livecoin is not available.
Livecoin stated that it is seeking to “pay the remaining funds” to customers and requires users to contact it via email to complete verification. In order to initiate this claim process, Livecoin users must send their username and registration date to the platform.
Livecoin promised to provide detailed explanations in its response, and pointed out that all claims will be accepted before March 17, 2021. Livecoin said: “After this date, no new compensation requests will be accepted.” The exchange did not specify when it expects to start repaying customer funds.
Livecoin also warned users that Livecoin unofficial chat groups may spread false information in an attempt to deceive users. Livecoin wrote: “The risk of entering these groups is high because we have not created any chat groups.” Livecoin claims that its website is the only source of official information. The company also stated that it is investigating false information.
Livecoin did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
As previously reported, Livecoin ceased operations on December 24, and reports stated that the exchange had suffered a “orchestrated attack” that caused it to lose control of all servers.
As part of the incident, the hacker managed to take over the infrastructure of Livecoin and adjusted the price of the exchange to an unusually high value. According to reports, the transaction price of Bitcoin (BTC) on Livecoin was more than $300,000, while the market price of Bitcoin at the time was approximately $24,000. Some users subsequently said that Livecoin “has been hacked” may be an exit scam.
Although Livecoin calls on its users to stay away from media channels, its so-called customers are working hard to recover funds through Livecoin’s unofficial Telegram group. Some reports stated that users speculated that Livecoin’s latest statement might have been issued by hackers, while others filed complaints with local law enforcement agencies.
For privacy reasons, some users refuse to send personal data to Livecoin. A so-called Livecoin user provided a list of data allegedly required for the Livecoin claim process, including passport scans, residence information, high-resolution selfies, first transaction data on the exchange, and equipment used on the platform , And the withdrawal video of the first profitable transaction.