Bitbns crypto investors' worst nightmare comes true, account balance turns '0'

Crypto investors and traders were in for a shock on Tuesday morning when their crypto balances seemed to have wiped out overnight on Bitbns exchange. Several users who spoke to Business Today highlighted this issue.

One such user said, “I had invested around Rs 12 lakh rupees in various cryptocurrencies via Bitbns. This morning I checked my wallet and everything was gone, all balance zero. I feel like my heart will burst I am so stressed.”

Another user, who had over Rs 7 lakh invested on the exchange, highlighted the same issue. “This morning I woke up, my whole portfolio of cryptocurrencies worth Rs 7.06 lakh gone. I had not traded anything at all. I thought maybe it was reflecting as the INR balance, but that was also zero.”

Several customers of the exchange also reported that they got notifications of trades being executed, but they had not authorised any such trades.

An investor said, “I got notification of several sell trades of my portfolio, but I had not done any of them. Then I opened my Bitbns app to check, I saw all my crypto was sold. There was no INR also from those transactions.”

Some users also noted that the ‘sell’ transactions are reflecting in their trade history, but they had not authorised any of them. Moreover, their crypto as well as INR balances are also at zero.

“Sale of my crypto tokens is also in my trade history, but I had not conducted any of these transactions. Even after the sale is completed, the INR is also not reflected in my account,” the user said.

Business Today has reached out to Bitbns with detailed questions on the issue. The exchange's CEO, Gaurav Dahake, responded and said, "The current situation is not the result of any external security breach but of a minor technical glitch that our top-notch engineers are actively working to rectify. I personally guarantee that our team is on top of this issue, and we are expecting to resolve it within a few hours."

It is worth noting that withdrawals on the exchange have been suspended since November 2022, as reported by Business Today previously. Despite this, several users pointed out that the crypto exchange is actively accepting deposits.

A customer of the exchange said, “No law enforcement or regulatory body is concerned about the malpractices of the crypto exchanges. Bitbns has suspended all INR withdrawals, which means I can not take my own money out of the exchange, but they are willing to accept INR from me. Consumer Courts should take strict action on this. But no one is interested.”

To this, the CEO said, "No withdrawals are suspended. USDT p2p gives option for users to withdraw same day. Crypto withdrawals are working fine."