A forum account tied to the cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e has issued a new statement, claiming to be in control of databases and bitcoin wallets days after the siteâs domain was seized by law enforcement agencies.
As CoinDesk reported, BTC-e â one of the longest-running and most secretive of the worldâs bitcoin exchanges â was targeted in a broad international police effort last week.
Authorities in Greece moved to arrest Alexander Vinnik, who was accused of operating BTC-e and laundering billions of dollars with bitcoin over a multi-year period. U.S. prosecutors later unveiled a 21-count indictment that included a $110 million civil fine levied against BTC-e itself.
However, just days later, BTC-eâs account on the Bitcoin Talk forum came to life. In that initial message, the exchange promised to return funds to users, though no clear deadline was offered at the time. It further denied that Vinnik was the mastermind behind the exchange or even an âemployee of our serviceâ.
In the latest message, BTC-e said (statement translated from Russian):
âWe were able to access our databases and wallets, at the moment we are evaluating data and balances on [coins], this information will be made public by the end of next week.â
It remains unclear who from the exchange is posting through the account.
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