The liquidator of New Zealand crypto exchange Cryptopia, Grant Thornton, has announced that the victims would be able to claim their assets by the end of 2020. In total, there are 960,000 account holders the liquidators will contact through official channels.
When contacted, the account holders will verify their identities and account information. In the announcement, Grant Thornton added that coins would only be returned to those who complete the required processes.
In early 2019, Cryptopia lost NZD 30 million ($17.85 million) worth of cryptocurrency to hackers. Later, asset recovery firm Grant Thornton was appointed to facilitate the exchange’s liquidation, which started in May of the same year.
In August, the courts ordered Cryptopia to reimburse the affected account holders. Now, the liquidator’s announcement revealed that the victims would soon regain their stolen digital assets.
“The expectation is the claims process will open by the end of the year with the AML [anti-money laundering] to follow. Once these two phases are complete, we expect the repatriation process to follow.”
Currently, the know-your-customer procedure is a legal requirement in New Zealand. However, the asset recovery firm said that the 96,000 affected account holders would have to undertake the process again, even if they did before the hack.
Regarding the hack, Cryptopia founder Adam Clark had previously said that the thief was an insider.
