Singapore Exchange Frozen from $58 Million in Cryptocurrency

A Singaporean exchange has been frozen from about $58 million in Bitcoin and USD Coin (USDC) following a long-running dispute over a wrongful transfer. The issue began when the customer received coins meant for someone else, as the exchange mistakenly looked at an outdated ledger to initiate the transfer.

The customer has been using the platform since 2013, founded their own blockchain in 2016, and even set up a cryptocurrency exchange of their own. However, the exchange discontinued support for its self-custody wallet product in April 2018, but users were not immediately cut off as they could still use a third-party tool to access wallets.

The wrongful transfer happened because the platform's internal ledger never logged the withdrawals, which led to the exchange sending reminders to the customer for up to four years after the actual withdrawals. In June 2024, a relationship manager offered help that turned up an automated 'remediation tool' in July, resulting in the exchange sending 2,500 BTC and 2,500 BCH of its own holdings to the customer.