Crypto Exchanges That Successfully Recovered Bitcointalk Users Funds

[Pmalek]

In January I talked about The unsung heroes of Bitcointalk and found examples of exemplary behaviour by Bitcointalk members.

This will be a similar topic, but this time the main focus will be on cryptocurrency exchanges. One of the most common mistakes that users do is they send their coins to the wrong addresses or blockchains. Because these addresses belong to custodial and centralised exchanges, most of the time, the money is simply lost. Exchanges don’t want to bother recovering these funds.

In the list below, I have listed five examples of where exchanges took some time to resolve their client issues and were able to recover their funds.

DISCAIMER:
- This is not support or endorsement of any of the mentioned exchanges and services! Before you send your coins to any exchange, do your own research, check the reputation of said platform, and ask the community for help if you are unsure!

1.
 
On 28 September 2019, greggson sent $4.000 worth of TUSD to a USDT wallet address. The coins were sent from ABRA wallet to a USDT address on EXXA exchange. Naturally, the user doesn’t own the private keys to recover the funds himself, so he contacted the exchange and asked for their help.

He called the head office in Singapore and was promised they would look into the case and contact him within a few days. Three days later, greggson is told to give them the correct address to deposit his TUSD and deposit some ether to cover the transaction fees. The user deposited 0.115 ETH ($20 at the time) and waited.

Another two days passed before greggson noticed that his 0.115 ETH deposit now shows only 0.11464805 ETH. Within an hour, the user informed the Bitcointalk community that his funds were recovered and credited to his account. The exchange credited his account with USDT instead of TUSD.

YAAAAASSSSS!! I just checked my EXXA wallet and $4K of USDT has been deposited
I can't believe EXXA rectified the situation but they took it one step beyond even converted my original $4K of TUSD to $4K USDT and deposited the whole $4K into my EXXA wallet
WHOO-WHOO!! THANK YOU SO bitcointalk community and to DRAGON!!
A-L-O-H-A 🤙

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5189161.msg52696989#msg52696989


2.
 
Freewallet is a multicurrency wallet with a built-in exchange. If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s the wallet that Elon Musk criticised at the beginning of February by saying:

“Your app sucks”

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1359390452772966404

This service has a bad reputation on Bitcointalk, but that isn’t the topic for today’ discussion.
In April 2019, kingplaya4 started a scam accusation thread against Freewallet because he was missing funds he attempted to exchange over the platform.

The user sent 1.89 BTC and wanted to exchange those coins for BAT tokens. The exchange remained uncompleted for several hours, so he contacted Freewallet support to see what was going on. When he didn't receive precise details of when his funds will be sent to his wallet, he accused them of scamming.

A Freewallet representative responded that his tokens had been sent to the wrong ETH address. Therefore, it would take some time before they can be returned to the rightful owner:

Hello! We'd like to once again emphasize that as we are talking about the transaction sent to a wrong address, this case may require some time to be resolved. We are doing our best to solve it for you as soon as possible. Thank you.

Five days after the scam accusation was created, Freewallet informed the community that the tokens have been retrieved and sent to the correct address:

Hello, we are happy to inform you that your case has been successfully resolved. Thank you for your patience and have a great weekend!

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5134482.msg50784980#msg50784980
 
kingplaya4 confirmed that he received his BAT tokens, and this case was successfully resolved:

Just wanted to say Freewallet did return all the coins to me and I have been able to exchange them back into BTC. They returned them several days ago, I was just waiting on making the exchange and wanted to make sure I would be able to get the coins out of the wallet and do the exchange successfully. Thanks to the freewallet representative on here who helped.

3.
 
P2PB2B.io is another cryptocurrency exchange with a dubious reputation on Bitcointalk.
In December 2019, BitcoiNaked accused them of scamming him for $3.000 worth of XTZ coins. The user says he wanted to participate in an IEO on their exchange. But that IEO got cancelled, and when he attempted to withdraw his funds, the exchange refused to authorise the withdrawal because of "suspicious activity".

The exchange responded, saying that an error is the reason why BitcoiNaked hasn't received his money, and he should try again. They also made irrelevant comments about him changing his Bitcointalk password recently and being an account seller.    

After 3 weeks, the user finally got his Tezos coins and was able to withdraw them.

So i finally received my funds into my wallet, i do feel like i had to go through so many steps and accusations to get my money. Nontheless fair play to them to deposit my money. I can't say now that i have been scammed since they returned my money, so for me now they seem incompetent, since a withdrawal for me took 3 weeks and tons of running after my funds to get a withdrawal.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5207571.msg53283849#msg53283849


4.
 
In May 2017, CryptoManiacHen sent 7 ETH from his Exodus account to Yobit. The only problem is that he sent the coins to an ETC address. The user reached out to Yobit support that confirmed that his ether had been sent to the wrong address.

A little bit later, Yobit sent the user an activation code that would allow him to claim the lost coins from Yobit's insurance fund. CryptoManiacHen entered the code on the address they sent him. His ether was returned to his Yobit account by the insurance fund.

You guys won't believe this.  Yobit gave me an activation code and then a link to enter it which had gave me the full amount of my ETH from their insurance fund.  WTF.  Problem solved. I truly can't believe it.

Has anyone had a similar experience with an exchange where funds were returned from an insurance fund like this? This is the first time I hear about it.


5.
 
The last case is from February 2021. TradeMeUp wanted to receive some tether on https://exchange.blockchain.com/, but he made a mistake and sent his client an ETH address instead. The sender deposited the funds to the wrong address, and TradeMeUp couldn’t access them.  

After he contacted Blockchain.com support, he was initially told that his money could be lost if sent to the wrong address, or it could take months for it to be recovered. Luckily, it took only three days. TradeMeUp informed the community that his coins were recovered and sent to the correct address.

Update. They returned full amount without any fees to correct USDT address less than in week. It's amazing! How i can change title of this topic (scamming is no longer actual)?

If you know of other good examples where exchanges recovered the money for Bitcointalk users, feel free to share them in the posts below!

[Charles-Tim]

From all the above cases, although the coins are sent to the wrong address but to the addresses that can still be controlled by the same private key which means the coin is not lost, if it is on noncustodial wallet, the issue is easy so far the user have the private key, all he needs to do is to look for a supported wallet for the coins and import the private key into such wallet to automatically see his funds. But, very possible custodial wallet and exchanges may not provide such service and not giving back the coin to the right owner, but the coins are with them (the exchanges) so far the person sent the coins to the address linked to the private key of the address he used to sent it which is owned by the exchanges.

I like this topic, but it should still be emphasized that not your key not your coin, I have seen so many cases in which new members will asked about how to recover such coins, but this are just few which you listed, how about the others which we yet not know if the coin lost forever, we should first trust ourselves before trusting others, a reason we should just go noncustodial and not depend on custodial services.

Also, if someone is not having enough funds, it could be very impossible for the recovery, of which noncustodial wallets will still make it possible for recovery.

But, we should still emphasize the fact that sending to wrong addresses will not be recovered, like sending a coin to an address that have a different private key entirely (like the private key which the person do not have access to, or which the exchange do not have access to). This will only lead to total loss of the coin unless the sender know the receiver. The exchanges have the private key to the address they are sending to is the reason the coins are recoverable. Noncustodial wallets will let it be in a way not need for help so far it is your private key uike exchanges.

[Pmalek]

But, very possible custodial wallet and exchanges may not provide such service and not giving back the coin to the right owner, but the coins are with them (the exchanges) so far the person sent the coins to the address linked to the private key of the address he used to sent it which is owned by the exchanges.

Some centralised exchanges charge their customers fees for recovering coins sent to the wrong addresses. These charges can vary, but I have seen amounts of 0.01 - 0.1 BTC mentioned in various sources. Many exchanges have a rule that if the amount isn't a significant one (I guess $10.000 and above is considered significant), they won't bother recovering the funds. As an excuse, they talk about how the developers don't have time to do that because they are overwhelmed by other duties, and regular staff members don't have access to private keys for security reasons. 

[decodx]

It is impressive that you find cases like this in a boatload of topics on this forum. 

It seems to me that some of these cases have been resolved solely because they were brought up in a public forum.

[examplens]

I am not sure is it belong here and whether it is within your ideas when you starting this topic, here is two examples. In both cases, BestChange ^{from your signature} mediate for successfully recover users funds

Here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5219589
User get back USDT 21010 from changehero.io

this is a bit fresher, the refund was confirmed today, trouble with fox.exchange and his "new" KYC rule https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5318850
He refunds $1k+ to the user after a little bit of pressure over the forum.

3.
 
P2PB2B.io is another cryptocurrency exchange with a dubious reputation on Bitcointalk.
In December 2019, BitcoiNaked accused them of scamming him for $3.000 worth of XTZ coins. The user says he wanted to participate in an IEO on their exchange. But that IEO got cancelled, and when he attempted to withdraw his funds, the exchange refused to authorise the withdrawal because of "suspicious activity".

The exchange responded, saying that an error is the reason why BitcoiNaked hasn't received his money, and he should try again. They also made irrelevant comments about him changing his Bitcointalk password recently and being an account seller.    

After 3 weeks, the user finally got his Tezos coins and was able to withdraw them.

So i finally received my funds into my wallet, i do feel like i had to go through so many steps and accusations to get my money. Nontheless fair play to them to deposit my money. I can't say now that i have been scammed since they returned my money, so for me now they seem incompetent, since a withdrawal for me took 3 weeks and tons of running after my funds to get a withdrawal.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5207571.msg53283849#msg53283849

This exchange has one positive solved case while at the same time they have many open accusations because of a very shady way of doing business. No matter of one solved case, they can hardly be placed in any positive context.

interesting topic, I hope there will be more positive cases here because trust in all exchanges has been shaken considerably.

[Pmalek]

It seems to me that some of these cases have been resolved solely because they were brought up in a public forum.

That's a valid argument and you are probably correct in saying that.

I am not sure is it belong here and whether it is within your ideas when you starting this topic, here is two examples. In both cases, BestChange ^{from your signature} mediate for successfully recover users funds

Nice research there and both examples could have been used in this thread as well. I did not come across the first case, but I remember reading the second one. However, I overlooked the part in OPs post where he said that he got refunded. I thought that case was still not resolved.

After another day(without a reply from them) i sent 2-3 emails telling them that im still waiting and urging them to take some kind of action i finally got refunded.

This exchange has one positive solved case while at the same time they have many open accusations because of a very shady way of doing business. No matter of one solved case, they can hardly be placed in any positive context.

I tried to stay neutral and objective when I read those threads and not be guided by personal opinions. That's why there is a disclaimer at the beginning of OP where I state that I am in no way supporting or promoting any of the brands and names mentioned. But now when you brought it up, I did see plenty of results about different users complaining about P2PB2B.io. Sad really that the people who operate exchanges don't realize that they can make much more money in the long run by not being shady and scamming.   

[mersal]

Simply those users are lucky enough to recover their funds even after sending them to the wrong address but thousands of others are having issues with changes accessing funds even they didn't make any mistake and I am one of the victims of coinbase and now my BTC value rose up to few thousands still they don't give me any proper response to access my funds in their vault.

[posi]

Simply those users are lucky enough to recover their funds even after sending them to the wrong address but thousands of others are having issues with changes accessing funds even they didn't make any mistake and I am one of the victims of coinbase and now my BTC value rose up to few thousands still they don't give me any proper response to access my funds in their vault.

Straight from the shoulder, coinbase is not among the exchange site that should be considered God-fearing because they don't treat any situations of their user sending fund to the wrong address which is a bad way to treat a customer and this is one of the reasons why I choose not use the exchange.
With that been said, I think the OP should include hotbit cause I have mistakenly sent TUSD to their deposit address using TUSD's old smart address and they gave back my TUSD without paying any fee.

[Myleschetty]

I like this topic, but it should still be emphasized that not your key not your coin

It clear that any coin keep on the custodial wallet is indirectly not our coins but the exchange that choose not to give back the coins mistakenly sent to the wrong address are using that strategy to steal from the legitimate owner and people should stay away from this kind of exchange site.

[Pmalek]

...I am one of the victims of coinbase and now my BTC value rose up to few thousands still they don't give me any proper response to access my funds in their vault.

What happened between you and Coinbase? Did you send your bitcoin to the wrong chain?

I think the OP should include hotbit cause I have mistakenly sent TUSD to their deposit address using TUSD's old smart address and they gave back my TUSD without paying any fee.

If you didn't write about it on Bitcointalk, there is no way for me to know about that particular case. And even if you did, there is still a big possibility that I never came across your thread by using the keywords that I used. 

[mersal]

...I am one of the victims of coinbase and now my BTC value rose up to few thousands still they don't give me any proper response to access my funds in their vault.

What happened between you and Coinbase? Did you send your bitcoin to the wrong chain?

Nope, I am having my bitcoin in my coinbase vault wallet which is like their cold storage so users need to authorize from two different sources and wait for 48 hours to withdraw the funds to their primary wallet. But I am not receiving the authorization mail to the secondary mail and I did follow what support system to do but they said the case is closed still I can't able to access my vault funds.

[Muenalo]

Congrats to these exchanges for doing a job well done. Because as it stands, many people are facing the same problem, but because of no one to help them retrieve their hard earn money, always keep silence, but how I wish all exchanges will go an extra miles to assist their esteemed customers, and I assure you, the crypto world will be the best place to be..

[examplens]

Congrats to these exchanges for doing a job well done. Because as it stands, many people are facing the same problem, but because of no one to help them retrieve their hard earn money, always keep silence, but how I wish all exchanges will go an extra miles to assist their esteemed customers, and I assure you, the crypto world will be the best place to be..

Congrats on what? For doing his job and not scam anyone?
when our criteria were lowered so much and we are happy when the exchange does not scam someone. it's their job, they take a commission from it, they charge for services. So there is no reason for glorifying.
All exchanges need to be criticized constantly, this will force them to do their best to provide the best conditions for their clients.

[Pmalek]

Bump