Crypto Platform Coinberry Files Lawsuit Over Loss of 120 BTC in Software Glitch

Canadian-based cryptocurrency platform Coinberry has filed a lawsuit against 50 of its users who took advantage of a software glitch to withdraw about 120 BTC (worth approximately $3 million), the Financial Post reported Thursday.

Coinberry Files Lawsuit Over 120 BTC Loss

In 2020, Coinberry, a subsidiary of digital asset provider WonderFi, initiated a software upgrade, which created a bug in the Interac e-Transfer function, one of its payment methods. The bug allowed users to purchase Bitcoin with Canadian dollars that they did not have. The company kept the information from the public at the time of the incident.

The lawsuit, filed in June in Brampton, Canada, mentioned that the crypto platform was able to fix the glitch, but only after 546 users had withdrawn 120 BTC.

After realizing what had happened, the company sent an email to all involved users requesting the return of the funds. While some users have responded, others have yet to respond. 

The statement added that only some 20% of the 546 users withdrew above $5000. The highest withdrawal, which was worth $385,722.31 in April, was by a user with two different accounts.

The company charged 50 of its users along with the popular crypto exchange Binance, where the latter was charged with holding funds transferred by Coinberry users.

Not the First Time

This is not the first time a crypto platform has lost funds due to a software bug.

Last week, for example, the Solana-based derivative platform OptiFi lost access to $661,000 worth of funds following a failed mainnet upgrade. Due to the unusual delay in upgrading its mainnet, the project team canceled the upgrade which triggered a chain of events that led to the permanent closure of the mainnet and funds stored in it. Efforts to retrieve the mainnet have been futile.

In June, DeFi project Optimism lost $16 million worth of funds to the crypto market maker Wintermute, as the market maker provided the wrong wallet address. The funds got stuck in an address that was inaccessible to both parties. Before Wintermute could get to the funds, an unknown actor had gotten to the funds first and withdrawn them to a separate wallet.