[2019-03-28] Bitcoin Exchange Coinbene Swears it Wasn’t Hacked: Traders Fear the

[CryptoVance]

https://www.ccn.com/exchange-coinbene-swears-it-wasnt-hacked-traders-fear-the-worst

Another major cryptocurrency exchange has gone dark, and bitcoin traders once again fear that it is using “maintenance” to cover up a crippling hack.

This time, the medal goes to CoinBene, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges according to CoinMarketCap.com. Per self-reported data, the platform enjoys over $780 million in daily trades through assorted cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, and monero.

    #Announcement ‼
    Somebody doubt CoinBene was attacked by hacker recently because our maintenance.
    We CoinBene are so sorry that made everyone worried for this problem.
    Truth is 👇 pic.twitter.com/2P8Ulwjj6C

    — CoinBene Global (@CoinBene) March 27, 2019

Is CoinBene Trying to Cover a Hack?

When services were down, and users began noticing extended delays while withdrawing and depositing funds, they instantly feared the worst. Thoughts that the company had somehow been exploited or potentially compromised by a cyberattack caused many to reach out for help, though executives initially claimed that the slow service was the result of “maintenance.”

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[stompix]

This time, the medal goes to CoinBene, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges according to CoinMarketCap.com. Per self-reported data, the platform enjoys over $780 million in daily trades through assorted cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, and monero.

The bolded part is important!
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitwise-tells-us-sec-that-95-of-volume-on-unregulated-crypto-exchanges-is-suspect

Seems like the exchange is back online and what is more suspicious so is the activity.
One would think a lot of trading would go down after this "maintenance" as users would think twice before risking funds there.

Really doubt they have those 40 million in their wallets.

[joniboini]

I also see similar message on my Telegram just a few hours ago. According to them, 'the hackers' have moved $180 million from the exchange?
Anyway, Coinbene apply expensive fees on their platform, so I still wonder who use their exchange and make more than '$780' million volume. Themselves? Sounds possible.

[Kemarit]

Funny though, I just created an account to that site and never heard about this hacked. Just wanted to trade some tokens their that I found I can play with  . Anyways, I know that that they have been faking their volumes based on lots of recent reports, but what the heck, just a small amount won't hurt my portfolio. . So let's see how it goes, I might just do a hit-and-run trading and then never come back to Coinbene again.

[Theb]

Now that Coinbene's website is back online the fastest way to confirm if it was really hacked is the users feedback about the matter. After observing some tweets with the tag #Coinbene so far there are no reports of loss funds with any account all tweets are related to the news about the 105$ million on the move from Coinbene's wallet. So I think it safe to say that the rumors aren't true as there are no users reporting any kind of issues up until now.

[1Referee]

So I think it safe to say that the rumors aren't true as there are no users reporting any kind of issues up until now.

Give it some time. An exchange that lost most of its funds can remain operational as long as people aren't withdrawing more than what the exchange itself has left in its reserves.

On the other hand, Asian exchange land is very tough where competitors try to trash each other by hack attempts and bad social media press. I prefer to wait and see when people complain about withdrawals not being processed. If we see these messages make it to social media, it's safe to say that Coinbene hasn't much left to cover withdrawals.

[stompix]

So I think it safe to say that the rumors aren't true as there are no users reporting any kind of issues up until now.

Give it some time. An exchange that lost most of its funds can remain operational as long as people aren't withdrawing more than what the exchange itself has left in its reserves.

In MtGox case it was close to 4 months when the problems started to appear, so those guys that are already faking a lot of numbers could maybe stay afloat for 6 easily.

But I seriously doubt both their volume and even the value of the hack.
Remember when Okex was caught with only 200 coins and 416 million in liquidation?

[1Referee]

But I seriously doubt both their volume and even the value of the hack.
Remember when Okex was caught with only 200 coins and 416 million in liquidation?

Coinbene's volumes are super fake for sure. The way their volume bars are so consistently high doesn't make sense at all. During times where every well established exchange doesn't generate much volume, Coinbene continues to generate a lot, and that's very suspicious.

OKEx is a known volume cheater, just like its partner in crime Huobi. These Asian exchanges are still forming a problem today after all the years, and this is why the SEC isn't keen on granting Bitcoin an ETF.

If you look back, people were wondering why the price didn't do anything despite the volumes increasing, well, it's all fake. Bitstamp is my benchmark exchange, and their volumes didn't increase which made me feel uncomfortable looking at how Bitcoin suddenly generated $10 billion in volume every single day.

[stompix]

Coinbene's volumes are super fake for sure. The way their volume bars are so consistently high doesn't make sense at all. During times where every well established exchange doesn't generate much volume, Coinbene continues to generate a lot, and that's very suspicious.

OKEx is a known volume cheater, just like its partner in crime Huobi. These Asian exchanges are still forming a problem today after all the years, and this is why the SEC isn't keen on granting Bitcoin an ETF.

This is one thing I don't get.
What are the IRS counterparts in those countries doing?

Because if you fake your volume and I assume by at least 10-20 times, you can't declare that you have made 1 million profits a year with 150 billion traded on your exchange.

I know is China where you can bribe everyone and the government is not touching business run by their own families but there must be a point where it goes way too much out of order and I honestly think we're past the point where intervention is needed.

[Lanatsa]

Just as i thought that they might have been experiencing some problems lately.27 log-in notification on a single day.



Im already registered on Coinbene but it shows successfully registered.

[figmentofmyass]

Coinbene's volumes are super fake for sure. The way their volume bars are so consistently high doesn't make sense at all. During times where every well established exchange doesn't generate much volume, Coinbene continues to generate a lot, and that's very suspicious.

OKEx is a known volume cheater, just like its partner in crime Huobi. These Asian exchanges are still forming a problem today after all the years, and this is why the SEC isn't keen on granting Bitcoin an ETF.

This is one thing I don't get.
What are the IRS counterparts in those countries doing?

Because if you fake your volume and I assume by at least 10-20 times, you can't declare that you have made 1 million profits a year with 150 billion traded on your exchange.

I know is China where you can bribe everyone and the government is not touching business run by their own families but there must be a point where it goes way too much out of order and I honestly think we're past the point where intervention is needed.

interestingly enough, china is the only country that's done anything about it. the chinese government started auditing the leading exchanges in january 2017 and if you look at the okcoin and huobi charts, you can see their reported volumes plummeted at this time before they were eventually forced offshore:
https://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/huobi/btccny
https://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/okcoin/btccny

i guess singapore, hong kong etc. are slower to do anything. but i feel like these exchanges are only nominally operated from there anyway. it takes governments years to figure out what's going on. and with all these exchanges in so many different jurisdictions, it's hard to imagine the problem will go away anytime soon. it's a legal clusterfuck.

[stompix]

it takes governments years to figure out what's going on

Agree with the rest but not with this one.
I'm not talking about the government finding a way to regulate trade or put in place legislation.

I'm talking about the IRS (or whatever it is called in those parts)  looking at the financial data of some exchanges and the profit they declare and not take action.
You have an exchange claiming to trade 100 billions + a year,  and contrary to how people picture the fiscal inspectors those guys know their job, and it's impossible that they don't have a clue about the numbers coinbene&co are claiming to run.

The only way I think they get away with is that they have a real balance that is perfectly in order where the numbers are correct with only the real trades, and what we see happening on our screens are trades that are just for visitors, in their accounting, they aren't showing up anywhere.

No matter what jurisdiction they go they must present an income sheet at the end of the fiscal year, and when this is messed by 10x-20x you're in trouble.

I think this is the reason why Binance chose to go from HK(?) then to Japan and then flee to Malta, the way "big" exchange are not spending more than two years in the same country is an alarm bell.

[figmentofmyass]

it takes governments years to figure out what's going on

Agree with the rest but not with this one.
I'm not talking about the government finding a way to regulate trade or put in place legislation.

I'm talking about the IRS (or whatever it is called in those parts)  looking at the financial data of some exchanges and the profit they declare and not take action.

i dunno how things work in east asia but in the USA these cases would take years to play out IMO. the IRS and CFTC and agencies like that take their sweet time building cases.

speaking of manipulation, the CFTC/DOJ investigation into bitfinex and tether has been ongoing for ~15 months now.

No matter what jurisdiction they go they must present an income sheet at the end of the fiscal year, and when this is messed by 10x-20x you're in trouble.

I think this is the reason why Binance chose to go from HK(?) then to Japan and then flee to Malta, the way "big" exchange are not spending more than two years in the same country is an alarm bell.

could be. i'm certainly suspicious of binance's volumes. it must be getting tougher and tougher to keep running such a large exchange while dodging KYC compliance too.

[1Referee]

The only way I think they get away with is that they have a real balance that is perfectly in order where the numbers are correct with only the real trades, and what we see happening on our screens are trades that are just for visitors, in their accounting, they aren't showing up anywhere.

No matter what jurisdiction they go they must present an income sheet at the end of the fiscal year, and when this is messed by 10x-20x you're in trouble.

The thing here is that their trading volume is public, and their fee structure is public. In other words, what you see is what you get, and in case Binance presents different numbers, I am quite certain that whoever is responsible for the legal actions in Malta, will dig into it because it's considered fraudulent activity.

On the other hand, it may be that in Malta you don't have to pay tax over that what is being generated in Bitcoin and other crypto currencies (assuming it's not converted to fiat afterwards). It's not for nothing that Binance, the crypto to crypto exchange, is different from Binance Jersey, the crypto to fiat exchange.

CZ (CEO of Binance) definitely knows how to play this game. Interesting is that he was CTO of OKCoin, now known as OKEx, an exchange known for very shady activity.

[posi]

This time, the medal goes to CoinBene, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges according to CoinMarketCap.com. Per self-reported data, the platform enjoys over $780 million in daily trades through assorted cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, and monero.

The bolded part is important!
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitwise-tells-us-sec-that-95-of-volume-on-unregulated-crypto-exchanges-is-suspect

Seems like the exchange is back online and what is more suspicious so is the activity.
One would think a lot of trading would go down after this "maintenance" as users would think twice before risking funds there.

Really doubt they have those 40 million in their wallets.

I hate the shady thing happening in exchanges site this days but they claimed they did some wallet upgrade and since we cant proof if they really got hacked all we can do now is to just wait cause the community are watching and the truth we definitely come out sooner or later.