Spanish Crypto Exchange 2gether Won't Reimburse All Stolen Funds From the 2020 Hack

Spanish cryptocurrency exchange 2gether has announced that it won’t compensate users for the full amount of bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) stolen in August 2020. The exchange said that almost 5,000 of its customers will receive their cryptos under the compensation plan.

Company Asks 9% of Its Users for More Time to Gather the Remaining Funds

According to the announcement, 91% of the users will be fully compensated as part of the firm’s capital round to gather enough funds for the purpose. The crypto exchange argues that it cannot pay the full amount because of the higher prices seen in BTC and ETH.

However, the company offered some solutions to the 9% of users affected by the measure:

The company has offered these users the best solution it can reach with the funds raised in this round — a solution that involves replacing a maximum of 99% of the BTC and ETH stolen and not converted, and at a minimum, the value in euros that was lost at the cyberattack time. It excludes what was converted into capital or 2GT tokens, depending on the amount stolen in each case.

Customers can choose to either accept or reject the proposal made by 2gether. If the users decide to reject the mentioned solution, the exchange asks them to give the company “more time to try recovering the total amount of funds as soon as possible.”

Still, per a statement sent to news.Bitcoin.com, 2gether clarified that they’re “aiming to reimburse the full amount for everyone.”

The Spanish crypto firm also said it will enable a feature in its app to allow users to proceed with the solution offered. However, the company didn’t provide a timeline to obtain the remaining funds for the full compensation.

Per a newsletter sent via email to all 2gether customers, the capital round gathered over 1.5 million euros ($1.8 million).

Ramon Ferraz, 2gether CEO, told news.Bitcoin.com:

2gether’s first move was to compensate 91 percent in the full, native crypto value that was lost at the time of the cyberattack, which is three times the value in euros that users lost at the time of the incident. For the remaining nine percent, 2gether is committed to compensating them with a package that is highly satisfactory. We are presently offering them the best compensation packages the company is able to provide, with a long-term goal of compensating the full value lost in the original cryptocurrency. We estimate that a full refund could take more time, but we always give freedom to our users to choose their best option.

Controversy on Social Media After the Announcement

However, the announcement sparked controversy among the crypto exchange’s customers on social media. On Twitter, a user expressed his disappointment on the matter:

Total disappointment. When subtracting the funds, you take from us all equally (well, not those who had BTC and ETH). Now it’s time to return, and you decide to shut up, giving everything back to some, to others 60% and to others between 30% and the rest to be paid in 4 years. Was this the fair thing to do?

On Aug. 1, 2020, 2gether suffered a cyberattack that affected several crypto trading accounts. At the time, the amount stolen by the hackers was over 1 million euros ($1.2 million as of press time).