With the crypto markets once again attracting large pools of capital, many new founders have discovered opportunities to grow incredible amounts of wealth.
The latest news however seems somewhat sketchy, as South African investors who buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can still not understand what happened to their funds.
The Africrypt platform, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Africa, recently went “off the radar” with Ameer and Raees Cajee, disappearing with $3.6 billion in investors’ funds.
The hijacking, if really proven to be of malicious intent, will be the biggest crypto heist ever seen in the continent. The total amount of stolen BTC amounts to 69,000.
Two South African brothers, Ameer and Raees Cajee, have reportedly disappeared, taking $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin with them.
The incident would make it one of South Africa’s biggest ever incidents related to crypto. The total amount that’s been recorded as stolen is 69,000 BTC.
Bitcoin suddenly disappears
The two South African brothers were founders of Africrypt, a platform that had earlier faced some legal trouble.
More specifically, investors of the platform partnered up with a law firm to investigate a cyber attack that supposedly took place in April. During that time, the exchange held more than $4 billion dollars worth of bitcoin.
Ameer had then asked investors not to alert the authorities about the issue, a major red flag in retrospect.
According to him, involving the authorities would slow down the recovery process. Still, the company would end up hiring a well-known law firm to take a better look at the incident.
According to the report, developers at Africrypt were not able to access the back-end a week before the hack was announced.
Police were later alerted as well, and they have since been contacting exchanges to make sure that the stolen funds are not liquidated.
Unfortunately, the bitcoin has been sent to mixers and tumblers, mechanisms often used to distribute the coins in different addresses to prevent tracing. Currently, the website has been shut down and there is no new update on investors’ funds.
The Cajee brothers first started their exchange in 2019, making a buzz in the region.
The latest hack is one of several that have taken place over the last two years, with another exchange stealing $1,2 billion in investor funds.
Now, the government is looking to improve regulatory measures to prevent other such scams from taking place in the future.
Could there be another side to the story?
Since the first announcements of the supposed hack took place on April 13th, the exchange had halted withdrawals.
The two young founders aged 18 and 20 started receiving death threats for themselves and their families, and with their little life experience found it difficult to navigate the situation.
Many feel there might be foul play, as the two founders created many enemies since the incident occurred.
The possibility, therefore, that they too are victims of the situation cannot be ruled out by the authorities.
Heavier regulations ahead?
While the crypto markets are no longer popular for their scams and illicit transactions are still often falling victim to such incidents.
Currently, exchanges are more regulated than ever and in direct communication with authorities to prevent and eventually eliminate such issues.
In their recent Crypto Crime Report, crypto research firm Chainalysis noted that only 0,34% of all transactions were used in crime-related events, but that this small amount still remains an issue for mainstream adoption.
And that’s not all. Apart from mainstream adoption issues, the use of crypto in such situations also leads to tighter regulations that make it harder for investors to get crypto exposure in our current economic instability.
Many believe that this would inevitably become the case since the blockchain is decentralized and can never be controlled in the same manner that other investment markets can.
Still, and after a recent ransomware attack on US infrastructure, the government is looking for solutions.
They are currently gathering resources to create an improved regulatory framework in order to streamline the use of cryptocurrencies and make sure the investment decisions of new crypto advocates do not turn against them as happened with Africrypt.
Bullish sentiment continues
The incident that took place earlier this week was one of the many times that FUD spikes up leading to negative market sentiment.
However, surprisingly, the latest event was barely felt in the market, as bitcoin has recovered nearly 20% over the past week.
Currently ranging at $36.000, crypto prices seem to be recovering and many feel we are bound to a new ATH.
Will this be the case? Only time can tell. For now, however, make sure your funds are safely stored off exchanges and into your cold wallet.
About the author
The crypto world is my passion and I believe in the crypto future. So I have spent the past 8 years studying as much as I can and sharing my own experiences with people. I am writing now about new trends – how crypto keeps changing the world, businesses, our understanding of money, transactions, and art.
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