New Zealand Police Keeping 'Open Mind' on Cryptopia Hack

UPDATE (Jan. 16, 2019, 15:50 UTC): Ethereum network data indicates that some of the funds from the hack were sent to Binance.

Changpeng Zhao, the exchange's founder and CEO, said on Twitter that the company was "able to freeze some of the funds."

"I don't understand why the hackers keep sending to Binance. Social media will be pretty fast to report it, and we will freeze it. It's a high risk maneuver for them," he added.

New Zealand Police has said the investigation into this week's hack of crypto exchange Cryptopia is complex and it is keeping an "open mind" on all possibilities.

The police force said in a news update Wednesday that the inquiry is still in its “very early stages” and that they cannot yet tell how much cryptocurrency is involved in the hack, “other than it is a significant amount.”

"We are dealing with a complex situation and we are unable to put a timeframe on how long the investigation may take," according to the police.

Specialist staff from the force's High Tech Crime Unit and the Canterbury Criminal Investigations Bureau (CIB) are currently investigating the breach, undertaking a forensic digital investigation of the exchange, as well as a physical examination of the exchange premises.

The priority for the police force is to “identify and, if possible, recover missing funds for Cryptopia customers,” it said.

The notice added:

Cryptopia went offline in the last several days before announcing that it had suffered a hack that brought “significant losses."

When asked for details of the hack and a more precise figure for the losses, a company representative told CoinDesk: “We cannot comment as this matter is now in the hands of the appropriate authorities. We will update you and our customers as soon as we can.”

New Zealand police image via Shutterstock