Key Takeaways:
- Coinberry is taking legal action to reclaim the stolen Bitcoins from its customers.
- Coinberry addressed 546 impacted registered individuals through email and demanded that the monies be returned.
- Only 23 Bitcoins were returned in response to the inquiry.
A software bug reportedly cost the Toronto-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinberry $3 million in Bitcoin in 2020.
Users were mistakenly given the option to purchase BTC using Canadian dollars that had not yet been securely transferred to their accounts after a software update.
The owner of Coinberry, a licensed cryptocurrency trading platform, is Wonderfi Technologies Inc., a Vancouver-based business supported by Shark Tank participant Kevin O’Leary.
The lawsuit was filed in Brampton, Ontario, west of Toronto, and it claims that Coinberry is suing 50 consumers and also naming Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world because it claims that those customers transferred their bitcoins to the Binance platform.
In the case, it was said that Binance “acknowledged that it had discovered a number of the misappropriated BTC and promised to limit any access to the accounts.”
Over 500 users first took advantage of the flaw, and 37 bitcoins were later returned at Coinberry’s request. There are now just 83 unclaimed bitcoins from the roughly 270 remaining users.
However, the procurement of 63 of those bitcoins, including the 9.48 units that were transferred to Binance, is the subject of the complaint.
Twenty of the 120 bitcoins were initially lost, according to Coinberry’s list, but more than 200 of the 546 users are suspected of stealing them from Coinberry.
According to the value of bitcoin in April 2022, the most that a single person ever stole and did not return was $385,722.31 in value.
In the case, it was said that “Coinberry contacted all of the alleged 546 impacted registered users by email and sought repayment of the misappropriated bitcoins.” “Coinberry also contacted Binance right away.”
Customers could start an Interac e-transfer during the software error, get the money credited to their Coinberry accounts, buy Bitcoin, move the coins out, and then cancel the initial e-transfer, according to the exchange. They managed to keep their money while obtaining bitcoin for nothing.
Intriguing instances like these are becoming more common in the cryptocurrency industry as it gains popularity. Major cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.Com recently sued an Australian woman named Thevamanogari Manivel after unintentionally refunding her $10 million in August. The woman reportedly called the exchange hoping to get a $100 refund but mistakenly got a $10 million one instead.
The flaw wasn’t found by Crypto.com until seven months later, the source said, during a year-end audit. When an account number was supplied in the payment field instead of the amount that was initially requested, an error was made.
