CustodyStress
Archive › Documentation absent
Part of the CustodyStress archive of observed Bitcoin custody incidents
CS-00126

Platform bankruptcy — exchange custody (2014)

Blocked
Case description
When Moolah declared bankruptcy and MintPal went offline in October 2014, no customer account statements, no reserve disclosures, and no formal claims process were provided. Users could not determine their individual balances. The only evidence of the theft came from blockchain analysis showing the stolen BTC being sold by Kennedy under a pseudonym on LocalBitcoins.
Custody context
Stress conditionDocumentation absent
Custody systemExchange custody
OutcomeBlocked
DocumentationUnknown
Year observed2014
CountryUnited Kingdom
Structural dependencies observed
Undocumented procedure
What this illustrates
Nobody had written down how to get back in. That knowledge existed only in the owner's head. Access was not recoverable.
Outcome interpretation
Access was not possible under the reported conditions.
Source
Publicly Reported
Evidence type
News article
Related cases involving documentation absent
193 cases involve documentation absent 512 cases involve exchange custody View archive statistics →
This archive documents observed custody survivability failures. It does not attempt to document all Bitcoin losses or security incidents. Submit a case
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Framework references
Terms guide
Survives
Access remained possible under the reported conditions.
Constrained
Access remained possible, but only with delay, dependence, or significant difficulty.
Blocked
Access was not possible under the reported conditions.
Indeterminate
There was not enough information to determine the outcome.
Single-person knowledge
Recovery depended on information or capability held by one individual who was unavailable.
Institutional dependence
Recovery depended on a third-party institution or service that was inaccessible or uncooperative.
Documentation gap
Recovery depended on instructions that were missing, incomplete, or unclear.
Authority mismatch
The person with legal authority to act did not have operational access, or vice versa.
Original text
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