Israeli wallet BT360 locks users out of accounts

A popular Israeli crypto wallet, BT360, which shut down the wallet and its site on February 12, has reportedly locked its users out of their funds while it investigates apparent financial irregularities.

The Israeli fintech publication Calcalist broke the story last week. The wallet site’s owner, Eyal Sadeh told Calcalist that he had fired the company’s CEO, Erez Fischler, for irregularities in how customer funds were handled. He said his site has been shut pending an investigation into the matter. After getting the all-clear from authorities, BT360 would go back up, and customers would be able to access their accounts, Sadeh said. 

A lot of finger pointing

Fischler could not be reached for comment but told Calcalist he did nothing wrong. He said he had quit the company weeks before the shutdown and had no access to customer accounts, so couldn't possibly be responsible for any loss. 

Users expressed frustration to Decrypt in interviews today. “Erez Fischler says that Eyal has the money. Eyal Sadeh says that Erez has the money,” one BT360, who gave his name as "Paz," told Decrypt. The user said that when he visited the site’s office last Sunday, Fischler told him that the authorities had seized the computers, and asked him to be patient while he sued Sadeh.

Sadeh could not be reached for comment, but has denied any wrongdoing.

Frustrated users want answers

Paz, who was a user of the wallet, said around $50,000 of his money is still stuck in BT360. Other sources told Decrypt they know of several people who have each lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Another victim, Eli Bejerano, who runs an Israeli crypto exchange, Bit2C, said he worked closely with Fischler last year when they piloted a new crypto loans product together. He said he lost an unspecified amount of money he invested in the pilot.

According to Calcalist, Fischler owned a chocolate business that went bankrupt. He reportedly was served with 40 debt claims, the news site reported.