54 bitcoin discrepancy at shut crypto exchange

There’s a roughly 54 bitcoin (R45 million) discrepancy in the accounts of provisionally liquidated crypto exchange iCE3, which shut its doors in March after announcing it would no longer process requests for crypto withdrawals.

Thousands of iCE3 clients have been left wondering what has happened to their crypto and whether they will get some back.

That question has been answered, at least in part. The provisional liquidator, Dewald Breytenbach of National Liquidators, said he now has physical control of some of the affected wallets. Breytenbach said the provisional liquidators discovered just 22 bitcoin where they expected to find 76.

Discrepancies were also discovered in smaller cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Litecoin and others. “In some instances, we discovered more [smaller] cryptos than we expected, and in other instances we discovered less,” he said.

iCE3 put a freeze on trading when the discrepancies first came to light, though it was allowing withdrawals. “The problem [at iCE3] appears to have started when a dispute arose between iCE3 and its platform provider, Merkeleon, based in Europe.

“iCE3 and its founder Gareth Grobler assumed this was a partnership, while Merkeleon had an entirely different understanding. Grobler says he developed the software on which the exchange operated, while Merkeleon took care of the administration, for which it invoiced iCE3 monthly.

“A decision was taken to shut down the exchange in February after there appeared to be a discrepancy between what cryptos there should be in the wallets and what was actually there,” added Breytenbach. “We have been in touch with Merkeleon and we are hopeful that we will get the information we require.”

Moneyweb previously sent questions to Merkeleon, but did not receive a reply.