Little by little, the German exchange Bitcoin-24 might be showing signs of coming back to life.
The company has not been able to handle transactions since April, when authorities closed its bank accounts.
In its most recent update, the exchangeâs law firm, Röhl, Dehm & Partner, said it expected to begin notifying customers by email last week about payments that have been due to them from Bitcoin-24âs German Commerzbank AG.
âIn this e-mail, we shall ask for confirmation of the payment amount and shall request that various details be provided, such as name, address, date and place of birth and nationality,â attorney Christian M. Röhl announced in a June 7 release. âWe apologise for this further delay.â
A news alert published at the top of the law firmâs press page added a warning to all Bitcoin-24 customers with gmail addresses: âWe have recently become aware several times that our e-mails from Google GMail are moved to the spam (folder). Please check your spam folder and mark our email as ânot spamâ. Thank you very much.â
In a reddit thread started on Monday, user UnderpaidBIGtime reported the first withdrawals of euros from Bitcoin-24âs accounts.
âSo we got first money showing up today,â UnderpaidBIGtime wrote. âLets (sic) hope all balances will be restored soon!â
Bitcoin-24, which had been the largest bitcoin exchange in Europe, went offline in April after authorities closed its German and Polish bank accounts. Exchange owner Simon Hausdorf blamed the shutdown on fraudulent transactions made by criminals who used phishing attacks to hack his customersâ accounts.
In late May, Bitcoin-24âs law firm announced that the seizure of the exchangeâs German bank accounts had been lifted by the public prosecutorâs office in Berlin.
âThis means that the suspicions concerning our client in relation to the alleged fraud and money laundering could not be substantiated,â Röhl-Dehm & Partner stated at the time, adding that the exchange was preparing to begin making its first payments due to customers with funds in the German bank.
As of June 7, there has been no further word on the status of Bitcoin-24âs Polish bank account.