Vertpig closes after wallet hack, funds still missing
Vertpig, a third party cryptocurrency exchange, allowed users to do easily exchange their cryptocurrencies at market rate for just the trading fee. Now, if you visit https://www.vertpig.com/, you will be greeted with following message.
What happened? Why was Vertpig taken offline?
According to the official statement regarding closure, the team became aware of bunch of uncompleted swaps that failed to pay out. The attacker used vulnerability in their system to steal funds from Vertpig’s platform.
One user on reddit still has not received his 6000 VTC and while two have ~500 VTC missing.
I requested a withdrawal of over 6000 VTC from Vertpig, which was “Pending” the entire day. Monday i still hadn’t received the funds and see they announce the exchange is shutting down.
So, I’m guessing my 500 Vtc is just gone?
I think so. I lost about the same amount.
A patch was applied later on and exchange was kept online. Vertpig team approached banks to cover lost funds.
Please do not make any further deposits. Withdrawals are currently not available and we are unable to provide any further information via our support system at this time.
— Vertpig (@vertpig) October 22, 2018
Previous to us becoming aware of this attack, we had been seeking cryptocurrency investment to expand our Swap service. The finance from our bank to cover the lost funds was going to be issued on the basis we found this investment we were already looking for as they felt without this expansion we would not be able to afford the repayments going forward.
A decision has been made this morning to take Vertpig offline following a series of recent attacks. We are currently seeking further legal advice and more information will be released in the coming days.
— Vertpig (@vertpig) October 22, 2018
However, they were unable to find the investment and on Monday, 22nd October 2018, Vertpig closed down.
Screenshot of Vertpig before closure
TLDR – due to huge amount of withdrawals after the attack + low remaining funds, the Vertpig had to be closed down.