Share this article
Polish Cryptocurrency Exchange Shuts Down Overnight, Taking Funds With It
"On the blockchain nothing disappears." Users left hunting for clues when Polish exchange abruptly shuts down.
By John Biggs
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 9:17 a.m. Published Jun 8, 2019, 4:00 p.m.
Make us preferred on Google
A polish cryptocurrency exchanged called Coinroom shut down on April 2, 2019, taking multiple customer accounts worth up to $15,000. The site is currently down and there is no way to contact the founders.
"We don't know how much they took," said one user named Maciej. "But it is definitely a lot of cash."
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Polish news site Money.pl first discovered the exit scam on May 31.
"Coinroom registered as a business in 2016 and a year later opened its website. Clients could deposit, buy, and sell cryptocurrencies. They could also exchange cryptocurrency for fiat," wrote Marcin Łukasik on Money.pl. "In April users received an email that told them that their accounts would be closed. They had one day to get their cash out. In order to do this they had to contact the exchange admins directly. Everything was laid out in the terms of service the users signed."
The exchange closed the next day and users who did not follow the proper procedure - one laid out by the exchange itself - lost their assets.
The owners disappeared and the president, Tomasz Zbigniew Wiewióra, was not available to answer questions regarding the exit scam. One Coinroom client found that Wiewióra opened a business in Estonia after leaving Poland. Users also believe that the company ran afoul of the KNF, the Polish economic authority. Łukasik noted that the same thing happened to another exchange, Bitmarket24, resulting in an overnight closure. Coinmarket was under investigation but survived a few months after being entered in to the KNF's black list.
One former user thinks the cash is long gone.
"There are some very interesting indicators that the cryptocurrencies were taken out and moved to other exchanges a few days before the shutdown," he said. "On the blockchain nothing disappears."
Image via Shutterstock.
More For You
Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.
What to know:
Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.
The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.
More For You
BNB rises 2.5%, nears $900 mark as prediction market growth signals utility expansion
A new physically backed BNB exchange-traded product launched on Nasdaq Stockholm, adding to existing investment options.
What to know:
- BNB token climbed 2.5% to $89e, approaching the $900 resistance level, with increased trading volume suggesting fresh buying interest.
- A new physically backed BNB exchange-traded product launched on Nasdaq Stockholm, adding to existing investment options like Grayscale's pending ETF filing.
- BNB Chain saw significant growth in prediction markets, with platforms like Opinion Labs logging over $700 million in 7-day trading volume and cumulative trading volumes crossing $20 billion.
Top Stories
