Liqui Shuts Down

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Liqui

The platform Liqui shut down without any noted loss to users. It appears that all users may have had the chance to remove their funds.

This exchange or platform is based in Ukraine, or the incident targeted people primarily in Ukraine.

About Liqui

"Liqui is a Ukrainian cryptocurrency exchange with its main office in Kiev." "We also have remote employees from Russia, Armenia, and USA. In total, project is run by 7 individuals and everyone is really inspired by the project. We are happy to bring something new into the cryptocurrencies’ ecosystem. Presently our exchange is not ‘white label’ but soon after the launch we are going to tackle this issue and add fiat currencies too."

"Moreover, we are perfectly aware of the fact that it is not possible to gain trust and build the reputation quickly and we will have to work hard in that direction. In that respect we are marathon runners, not sprinters) In words of the CEO of Poloniex – ‘Trust has to be built’."

"It is crucial that we are very excited about this project. With your permission we would like to declare our goal for the coming year right here and right now: 200 BTC average daily trading volume and 1000 BTC limit on savings accounts."

"The platform was also a staunch supporter of a string of altcoins, whilst also providing liquidity for those wanting to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum." "Liqui ha[d] almost 290,000 registered users."

"The latest cryptocurrency exchange to bite the dust is Liqui, which officially announced this week that it would be closing its doors to crypto traders due to a lack of liquidity. Liqui.io published a heartfelt statement on its website and distributed the same message to all of its exchange users via email. It confirms that Liqui is “no longer able to provide liquidity for the Users left” on the platform."

“[...] Liqui is no longer able to provide liquidity for the Users left. We also do not see any economic point in providing you with our services. However, we do not want to return to where we were a month ago. Hence, we decided to close all accounts and stop providing our services. It broke our hearts to do that,” the exchange wrote on their landing page.

"The statement goes on rather bluntly to state that it does “not see any economic point in providing” their services. The decision was clearly a difficult one for the company to take, with its post concluding that it “broke [their] hearts” to close all active accounts and cease transactions on its exchange."

"A recent change in company policy, which gave customers the option of opting in or out, did not go the way Liqui’s founders had planned, resulting in this untimely closure. According to the official announcement, all Liqui.io users with assets in their Liqui account have been given 30 days from 28th January to withdraw their funds as all accounts will be shut down after this period. Failure to withdraw assets during this timeframe will also incur a fee, as set out in Liqui.io’s Terms of Use."

"It’s not yet clear whether the long-term bearish cryptocurrency markets have had an impact on Liqui’s closure. However, the company’s official statement acknowledged that the cryptocurrency market had “significantly changed since 2017”. In the hours leading up to its announcement, Liqui’s exchange had executed trades worth more than $100,000."

"After 30 days we cannot guarantee that we will be maintaining our website. In this case, all withdrawals will be processed through our support https://liqui.freshdesk.com until the last user store his assets with us. Note that our Terms of Use will apply until you have your more than zero balance in our wallets. If we do not provide services we cannot store your assets for free, so the fee will apply if you fail to withdraw in accordance with our Terms of Use."

“We may be back soon. However, that depends on the market which has significantly changed since 2017. We do not know what else to say but say thank you for supporting the cryptocurrency community and your faith in us.”

This exchange or platform is based in Ukraine, or the incident targeted people primarily in Ukraine.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

Known history of when and how the service was started.
What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
How were people recruited to participate?
Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - Liqui Shuts Down
Date	Event	Description
January 28th, 2019 12:00:00 AM	First Event	This is an expanded description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost is unknown.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?