Cryptsy
Summary
Cryptsy was a Florida-based altcoin exchange that operated from May 2013 until its collapse in January 2016, at which time it was one of the largest altcoin trading platforms by volume. Founder Paul Vernon, known as 'Big Vern,' allegedly staged a hack narrative to conceal his personal theft of over $1 million in customer funds, then fled to China, remotely destroyed the customer database, and was later designated a federal fugitive. A U.S. federal court issued a $8.2 million default judgment against Vernon in 2017, and a 17-count criminal indictment was unsealed in January 2022; Vernon remains a fugitive believed to be residing in China.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 10 linked investigations- + 6 more
Timeline(16 events)
2013-05-01
Cryptsy launched by Paul Vernon in Delray Beach, Florida, focused on altcoin trading.
BitcoinWiki2013-11-01
Cryptsy cited in the Wall Street Journal; Vernon reports 33,000 trades per day.
Cryptsy: History and Impact — BitcoinWiki2014-05-22
Alleged: malicious Lucky7Coin wallet update with IRC backdoor distributed to Cryptsy, beginning attacker's foothold.
SecurityWeek2014-07-02
Approximately 300,000 LTC dumped on an exchange in a single transaction, temporarily crashing the LTC price.
SecurityWeek2014-07-29
Vernon informs employees that approximately 13,000 BTC and 300,000 LTC (roughly $5 million) were stolen from Cryptsy. The theft is not disclosed to customers.
CoinDesk2015-05-01
According to the DOJ indictment, Vernon's personal theft of customer funds via wallet transfers concludes around this date (theft period: May 2013 – May 2015).
DOJ / CoinDesk2015-11-01
Vernon relocates to China; publicly discloses the 2014 hack to Cryptsy customers for the first time, more than 16 months after the alleged theft.
DOJ / CoinDesk2016-01-05
Cryptsy suspends trading and withdrawals, attributing the outage to 'lag'; CoinMarketCap delists the exchange.
CoinDesk2016-01-15
Cryptsy publicly announces the 2014 hack and claims outstanding liabilities of ~10,000 BTC; class action lawsuit filed in federal court.
CoinDesk2016-04-04
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida appoints James D. Sallah as receiver for Cryptsy.
CoinDesk2016-04-01
Vernon allegedly remotely accesses Cryptsy servers from China, steals and destroys the customer database to obstruct the receivership.
DOJ / CoinDesk2016-08-11
Court receiver files report alleging Vernon stole over $3.3 million and transferred it to accounts shared with his ex-wife.
CoinDesk2017-07-27
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra issues $8.2 million default judgment against Paul Vernon; court declares 11,325 BTC stolen on July 29, 2014 to be property of the plaintiff class.
CoinDesk2019-01-01
Paul Vernon officially designated a federal fugitive; indictment filed (later unsealed in 2022).
CoinDesk2022-01-27
DOJ unseals 17-count federal indictment against Paul Vernon charging wire fraud, money laundering, computer fraud, evidence destruction, and tax evasion.
DOJ / CoinDesk2022-03-29
Over 11,000 BTC stolen from Cryptsy in 2014 — dormant for nearly eight years — begin moving on-chain; Elliptic tracks over $200 million sent to ChipMixer.
EllipticDecision Log
- hash: Doy7qSZL8Wn2Xy2yYHC9FZ73MoC6vfEjPNPNKC2NLBmF
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 6/1/2026, 5:47:36 PM
last updated: 6/1/2026, 5:47:41 PM
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