Bitmart’s owner has filed a request to prohibit Chinese hackers from selling forged Bitcoin SV (BSV) on its open market.
According to a July 26 article, Bitmart’s owner, GBM Global Holdings, filed its bid with a federal judge in New York, despite the fraudulent operations taking place mostly outside of the state.
Nonetheless, the company claims that the Southern District Court of New York has jurisdiction over the case “In order for the hackers to be able to sell the illicit crypto on the open market, they must first engage in fraudulent or manipulative acts with foreseeable consequences in New York,” according to the complaint.
The offer, which has been substantially redacted, states that if no action is taken, the cash will be far more difficult to collect on behalf of affected users.
According to Bitmart, the hackers duped at least 43 of its US customers by minting fake BSV in violation of the US Commodities and Exchange Act.
The counterfeit coins were initially discovered on July 8 by the Bitcoin Association in Switzerland. They were allegedly created through a block-reorganization assault on the Bitcoin SV network, which entailed forking the blockchain illegitimately to allow for double-spending of coins.
At least eight additional crypto exchanges, including Binance, Huobi, Okex, and Kucoin, have reportedly identified fraudulent transactions linked to the hack, according to Bitmart, based in the Cayman Islands.
GBM’s plea to the New York judge has been enhanced by the fact that it has been able to “identify at least two fraudulent transactions by Defendants with two New York users of its cryptocurrency exchange.”
The hackers have also “transferred the bitcoin to other exchanges serving New York consumers with the intent to sell them,” according to GBM, who also claims that “if they are permitted to make such sales, they will almost surely interact with New York-based counterparties.” GBM contends, in the hopes of securing an intervention that will protect its users:
“Defendants are foreign, impossible-to-identify hackers intent on fraud, there is almost no likelihood that they would pay a damage award. Short of receiving an injunction of already-identified, fraud-begotten cryptocurrency, there is no way for Petitioner to secure ultimate recovery.”
While hackers and attacks have shifted their attention to the embryonic DeFi space, centralized crypto exchanges remain susceptible.
The most well-known example in 2020 included the Singapore-based exchange KuCoin, however, lesser hacks also hit the Italian platform Altsbit, among others.
