Key points:

  • Crypto.com has admitted that it made a colossal blunder by transferring $7.2 million to a customer in Australia
  • Instead of giving her a $68 refund, the crypto trading platform accidentally sent millions to her account
  • The fintech company, which did not notice this error for seven months is demanding that the customer pay them back
  • Crypto.com has sued the customer in question in the Victoria Supreme Court

There is no shortage of drama in the crypto world as another exciting story unfolds. This time, in Australia. 

Crypto.com, one of the leading cryptocurrency trading platforms in the world, has filed a lawsuit against a customer, Thevamanogari Manivel. Why? Here’s the story. 

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Crypto.com makes a blunder, the customer accepts the money

Crypto.com accidentally transferred around $7.2 million (USD) to a customer in Australia instead of giving her a standard $68 refund. As per an Australian news outlet, 7News, Crypto.com only noticed almost seven months after making this huge error. During that period, the customer spent a significant chunk of that money. 

They made the transfer in May 2021 when an employee made a typo and added the account number in the payment amount field. The company only identified this mistake during an audit in December 2021. 

The customer stayed mum throughout all of this by not reporting the incorrect refund to Crypto.com. As per reports, Thevamanogari Manivel, the customer who is in the spotlight, has moved the money to a joint account and spent just under a million dollars on a lavish five-bedroom home for her sister. 

After being in the dark for months, Crypto.com is finally taking some steps toward recovering the money back from Thevamanogari Manivel. The company, which is also endorsed by Matt Damon, has sued the customer in the Victoria Supreme Court. The Guardian reported that the company successfully froze Manivel’s account in February this year. 

Besides, the court has also ordered Manivel to sell the home and return the entire amount along with interest to the exchange. As things stand, the trial will resume in October this year, and the company has not commented on the situation yet. 

Crypto ecosystem hit by uncertain economic conditions and more

Crypto companies are not particularly enjoying a good run in recent times. Many companies have frozen withdrawals, token swaps, and deposits because of uncertain economic conditions. Many experts have said that we are in the middle of a “crypto winter”. 

After the recent Crypto.com fiasco, many have joked about the situation, saying that the “crypto winter” is not solely responsible for draining out money from crypto firms; fat-fingered typing errors are also becoming a problem. 

Earlier last week, a developer unintentionally used the catastrophic “Solana program close” command to shut down the entire software that powered the decentralized exchange OptiFi, wiping out $661,000. The exchange now requests a warning message when using the prompt to avoid similar situations in the future. 

What do you make of this story? Let us know by leaving your comments below. 

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Feature Image Source: Photo by Michael Förtsch on Unsplash