ChangeNOW has returned $1 million worth of MATIC (MATIC/USD) coins stolen in last year’s Eterbase hack, which is yet another important milestone for the platform and the quintessence of its tradition. On September 8, 2020, European cryptocurrency exchange Eterbase reported it had been hacked a day earlier. Soon thereafter, ChangeNOW received a request to blocklist certain addresses.

AML system prevented fund conversion

ChangeNOW stopped an exchange of 600,000 MATIC to Bitcoin (BTC/USD) that same day, thereby preventing the funds from being converted and moved. Instead, they were frozen pending a claim by the legitimate owner for the stolen assets.

Platform initiated conversion with Eterbase due to lack of claim

Are you looking for fast-news, hot-tips and market analysis?

Sign-up for the Invezz newsletter, today.

There’s a one-year period after the transaction was blocked for a legitimate owner to request a refund according to ChangeNOW’s Terms of Service. As there was no claim, ChangeNOW initiated the conversation with Eterbase.

The recipient was validated in cooperation with the Slovak Police Department and the amount of 600,000 MATIC stolen was returned. In one year, its value had grown about 90-fold.

Mike Ermolaev, head of PR at ChangeNOW, told Invezz:

When it comes to crypto, it is important to be extremely alert in order to avoid scammers and hackers. Since ChangeNOW works closely with crypto transfers, we pay increased attention to any possible suspicious activities. The return of 600K MATIC to Eterbase is only one of the examples when ChangeNOW has helped to restore justice in the crypto industry. Our goal is to make people trust not only our service, but the crypto space in general. We truly believe that cryptocurrencies are the future of the world’s economy and are not something people should be afraid to use. So, by giving a hand to the entities suffered from hackers’ attacks we also prove that there are crypto platforms you can rely on.

Justice is top priority for ChangeNOW

Back in 2019, ChangeNOW stopped a few suspicious transactions in the amount of 500,000 XRP (XRP/USD) stolen in the GateHub hack. Last month, the platform returned $15 million worth of COMP (COMP/USD) to Compound Finance. The “good karma” principle is central to everything ChangeNOW does.