The BitGrail saga continues to play out in the public and the negative impact will not help the global bitcoin community.
The latest report is that the bitcoin exchange's bitcoin assets have been seized by Italian authorities.
This was confirmed in a recent announcement on the and has understandably made many of the site's customers very angry.
The exchange revealed that Italian authorities seized BitGrail's bitcoin assets back on June 5. This was following the direction of the Tribunal of Florence. The tribunal ordered that the assets be seized in preparation for the exchange's bankruptcy proceedings. The total amount of these bitcoin assets was not revealed.
This is the culmination of the recent events that embroiled BitGrail. The first signs of trouble were back in February. This was when the Italian bitcoin exchange was hacked. The result was that 17 million Nano, a cryptocurrency being traded on the exchange, was stolen. At that time, the hack was worth $187 million. BitGrail immediately responded by halting trading to try and recover the funds.
However, that was not the end of the matter. Days after the hack, the CEO of BitGrail, Francesco Firano announced that there was no way for the funds to be recovered. It also didn't help that BitGrail and the Nano Foundation got into a public spat over who was responsible for the security leak that allowed for the hack to happen.
By March, BitGrail announced that they would be refunding 80 percent of the value stolen. However, this was to be done via BitGrail Shares, a new cryptocurrency token minted by the exchange. Additionally, the refund would only happen if the victims signed an agreement about not taking any legal action against Bitgrail. This was not exactly what the victims wanted to hear and they took legal action against BitGrail.
BitGrail Customers Take Exchange To Court
In April, victims of the hack banded together and filed a bankruptcy case against the exchange. Represented by the law firm BonnelliErede, the group of victims filed a petition of bankruptcy, which they are allowed to do under Italian law. This would result in a full accounting of the bitcoin exchange's assets and a possible pay out to all creditors. The Nano Foundation helped out by announcing that they would fund the legal efforts.
By May, BitGrail seemed to bounce back by reopening. However, they closed down after three days of operation because of a court order. Now, the exchange and its customers are stuck in limbo while legal proceedings are to be carried out.
The entire BitGrail saga is not a good advertisement for bitcoin, especially now as the cryptocurrency has dropped significantly in 2018.
