Bitcoin Private [BTCP] developers serve legal notice to HitBTC for delisting BTCP from exchange

HitBTC, the fifth largest cryptocurrency exchange according to CoinMarketCap, has been accused of the “questionable, unjustifiable reasoning” that went into delisting Bitcoin Private [BTCP].

Bitcoin Private developers made the information public via their tweet on March 10, 2019. The tweet stated:

“Dear #BTCP community – please read the legal letter below, that uncovers @hitbtc and their questionable, unjustifiable reasoning behind the removal of Bitcoin Private from their exchange.”

The legal letter sent via email to HitBTC by Petros Law Group on behalf of BTCP detailed a timeline of events that led to a disagreement between HitBTC and BTCP developers. The disagreement finally concluded with HitBTC delisting BTCP after BTCP devs failed to comply with HitBTC’s request to compensate for the loss of users’ funds.

The letter detailed the alleged claims by BTCP developers that HitBTC failed to heed to BTCP’s coinburn, which was announced weeks prior to the event, but in turn, asked BTCP to compensate for the lost BTCP.

According to the whitepaper by BTCP, users who held Bitcoin [BTC] and ZClassic [ZCL] would be provided BTCP in the ratio of 1:1 after the fork. The unclaimed coins after the fork were to be “burned” or deleted. The coinburn by BTCP was supposed to happen on February 16, 2019, but a day prior to the coinburn, HitBTC reached out to BTCP devs for assistance.

The assistance to protect users’ funds turned into a compensation request by HitBTC as it requested a total of 58,920 BTCP for the loss that will be incurred by HitBTC after the coinburn.

This legal letter also stated:

“To clarify, no BTCP User, on any exchange which supports Bitcoin Private trading, was negatively impacted by the Coinburn… Furthermore, HitBTC knowingly, intentionally, and deceptively misrepresented their falsified claims in their fraudulent plea for BTCP developer assistance when they stated that it was “our users BTCP coins” that were in jeopardy”

HitBTC posted a blog on their official website stating that they have decided to delist BTCP from their platform and announced:

“Never in the history of our platform our users have lost the funds kept in our custody and this is the practice we don’t ever want to disrupt. This situation is a good example of how important it is not to change the rules in existing blockchains if those changes can have a negative impact on the users.”

Crypto_spawn, a Twitter user, commented:

“Well @officialmcafee has been sounding the alarm about hitbtc since last summer. Not sure if their tactics should come as a surprise to anyone paying attention. I refuse to touch hitbtc anymore.”

@privatematters101, another Twitter user, commented:

“Good luck taking @hitbtc to court, there must be a long line going by their reddit sub of people who have had their accounts locked up or assets stolen by this scam exchange @bitcoinprivate is a dead project anyway, cut your losses and walk away its not coming back from the this”