Bitcoin Forum

I was actively trading on bitfloor right up until the theft, and I was unlucky enough to have ~25BTC in my account at the time of the theft. I'm amazed that there has been no word of a refund, so at this point Roman hasn't really lost any BTC due to the theft, and all of the loss has been placed on the users. I really can't afford to have that many BTC lost. What can I do??

Sue for criminal negligence or something, I'd guess. ianal

There really isn't much that can be done.  After the incident, withdrawals of USD funds were allowed and thus the exchange is likely left with few remaining USD funds (those by customers who haven't withdrawn yet, for whatever reasons).  BitFloor essentially was made insolvent the second the BTC funds were stolen but no creditors (a list that include those who had accounts with bitcoins) have yet taken legal action -- at least nothing that has been shared.

Roman is out of the country (presumably still), and BitFloor may not have had any assets in the U.S. other than the bank account holding customer's USD funds which is likely nearly depleted at this point.   Trying to resume running an exchange without the protection that comes after filing for bankruptcy would mean having to come up with 24,000 bitcoins from somewhere first.

There appears to have been preferential transfer that occurred, and the bankruptcy laws have clawback provisions:
 - http://www.thebankruptcysite.org/resources/bankruptcy/filing-bankruptcy/the-clawback-provision-preferential-transfers.htm

But paying to pursue that is likely throwing good money after bad.

If there are still some USD funds remaining in the exchange's bank account, perhaps a small claims court filing to recover losses from that might be tried.

Sorry to learn of your losses and sorry to not be able to offer much hope towards the recovery of the losses.

The problem comes with what to do with what you can't afford to lose. It has to go somewhere (though at this stage, new Bitcoin institutions are particularly risky).

There's not much you can "do" except be patient. I think it is very likely Roman will reopen soon and repay all the coins eventually.

afaik they are trying to recover bitfloor.
maybe try to sell the debt?

but i doubt you'll get much for it.

I wouldn't be so sure. Lots of folks, myself included, have expressed interest in buying that debt as soon as Roman will allow it.

Well, I completely understand what you're trying to say. But realistically, i feel like theft is not something I would realistically account for when making an investment. It would've been extremely unlikely that my 25BTC investment would have gone to zero under normal circumstances. In effect, had those BTC not been stolen, they would have actually *gained* value since then.