The Swiss company has filed for bankruptcy. The last disaster was initiated by a cyber attack in June.
At the beginning of December 2024, the Zug-based crypto exchange Lykke ceased trading. Before Christmas, bankruptcy proceedings were initiated for the holding company Lykke Corp. Since January 8, Lykke Business AG, which operated the crypto exchange, has also been in liquidation. This is reported by the ‘Blick’.
Lykke’s finances have been in a bad state for years, the newspaper writes. “There was a lack of enough investor money. At the same time, the parent company was making losses for years.” The final stab in the back was the hacker attack last summer. Cybercriminals stole assets worth 22.8 million francs in June. This was a quarter of the entire Lykke holdings.
After that, it was said that Lykke was on the road to recovery and wanted to resume operations. But this did not succeed in the long term. When asked by ‘Blick’, founder Richard Olsen only explained: “The procedure is now in the hands of the responsible authorities, which is why I cannot make any further statements on it.”
Lack of clarity for customers
For customers, it remains unclear what the state of their crypto holdings at Lykke is. Many accuse the company of poor communication. Several customers have joined forces to take legal action against Olsen and to obtain compensation in court. The responsible bankruptcy office in Zug advises creditors on its website to register possible claims now.
Lykke CEO Olsen hopes that he will still be able to compensate his customers. Other teams and companies are in the process of turning his “scientifically and academically recognized findings and ideas” into successes for companies and non-profit organizations, he announced in a customer letter in mid-December, according to ‘Blick’. “If I benefit from these initiatives, I will use them to compensate to the extent possible and permitted by applicable laws.” However, Olsen has not yet become more concrete.