Criptsy was a United States-based digital currency exchange launched in 2013 by founder Paul Vernon. It gained popularity primarily as an "altcoin" exchange, offering trading for a wide variety of cryptocurrencies that were not available on larger platforms at the time. The company secretly suffered a major hack in July 2014, resulting in the theft of millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Instead of disclosing the breach, the founder continued to operate the exchange while it was insolvent, using new customer deposits to process withdrawals. The platform officially collapsed in January 2016, with Vernon publicly blaming the hack before disappearing with the remaining customer funds.

Founded in

United States