Brazilian Crypto Platform BlueBenx Suspends Withdrawals, Reports $31M Hack

Brazilian cryptocurrency investment platform BlueBenx has become the latest crypto company to suspend withdrawals, citing an alleged hack that cost the company over $31 million.

The company said withdrawals might be stopped for six months or more, Bitcoin.com reported Sunday (Aug. 14).

“Last week we suffered an extremely aggressive hack in our liquidity pools on the cryptocurrency network, after incessant attempts at resolution, today we started our security protocol with the immediate suspension of operations of BlueBenx Finance products, including withdrawals, redemptions, deposits, and transfers,” BlueBenx said in an email to customers, per the report.

There were no details shared about the nature of the attack, but sources said the company had also fired all of its employees on the same day the hack took place. The report noted that earlier this year, the Brazilian Securities and Values Commission investigated the company due to allegedly offering unregistered securities in its investment portfolio.

BlueBenx didn’t reply to a request for comment from PYMNTS.

There have been numerous crypto companies freezing withdrawals and even filing for bankruptcy, with trouble in the industry rippling outward.

Last week, CoinFLEX announced its restructuring plans following legal troubles, having halted withdrawals and money losses in an attempt to recuperate after a scandal involving a breached contract.

Read more: Crypto Exchange CoinFlex Seeks Restructuring, Cuts Staff, Costs up to 60%

That saw Roger Ver, a longtime investor, failing to pay back $47 million from a margin call — with the total amount higher after things were calculated. CoinFLEX may also be looking into a joint venture with another crypto company to help out with the situation.

“It may take some time before we can recover funds owed to us in the litigation actions we are taking against this individual,” the company wrote in a blog post.

The company had been talking with Ver, who’d asked them to liquidate his account, but also told them that he wanted to “send significant funds to the exchange to take physical delivery of the futures positions.”

However, the company said nothing had come to pass from this, eventually realizing Ver was just waiting for a bounce in the market, which never happened.

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