MintPal’s long-awaited relaunch took place on Tuesday, but the kick-off was marred by systemic problems that left some users at least temporarily unable to access their accounts.
Purchased by digital currency services provider Moolah in July, MintPal has delayed its platform upgrade several times. The most recent delay took place in late September, as Moolah was preparing to migrate from its old platform to its new one.
The latest version of the long-popular altcoin-focused exchange is now up and running, though some tools and resources including graphs remain unavailable for users.
Basic features work and users are able to process both deposits and withdrawals, but MintPal has had to scramble to address a number of user issues, including problems related to account access, two-factor authentication, market trading and coin balances.
The MintPal team has been active in addressing user issues, as shown by frequent updates on Twitter. Though some users have reported that they are unable to access their accounts, the company released an update several hours ago stating that they are moving to solve the missing account issue.
All missing accounts have imported, we are running a balance audit on these before making them live.
— Moolah (@moolah_io) October 8, 2014
CoinDesk reached out to Moolah for comment but did not receive a reply by press time.
MintPal’s rebirth bid
MintPal’s relaunch was intended to address a drop in trading volume months after roughly eight million vericoins were stolen from the exchange. The incident raised questions about security and ultimately led to its acquisition by Moolah.
When Moolah purchased MintPal in July, CEO Alex Green told CoinDesk that the deal happened because his company saw an opportunity to invest broadly in what was then one of the world’s most popular altcoin exchanges.
He said at the time:
“We believed that we were in the best position in terms of security, operational and performance expertise in order to take the exchange to the next level.”
In an effort to boost trading volume, MintPal has offered a number of incentives aimed at users with significant holdings – include the postponement of trading fees for the remainder of the year.
MintPal is also offering bonuses of 1.5 BTC for the first 10 traders that exceed 100 BTC in volume. In the first few hours of trading, several altcoin markets on MintPal exceeded 100 BTC in 24-hour volume, though it isn’t immediately clear if these volumes were the result of single users.
Community split
The social media buzz surrounding the MintPal relaunch grew louder in the days preceding the official kick-off.
In the preceding days, owner and operator Moolah teased the completion of data migration on Twitter. This prompted some users to question the competence of the company, though some expressed hope that they might see volumes like the 10,000 BTC or more that the exchange saw earlier this year.
Public expectations of the platform’s future seem to have been dampened by the circumstances of the launch. Some users expressed anger over long wait times, raising concerns that MintPal had become overwhelmed by the launch.
As one user said:
@moolah_io Can’t log into my mintpal account. Sent you a support email, no reply yet. I have money on your exchange and it belongs to me. — Sean (@SeanJMacIsaac) October 8, 2014
The issues which appear to be persisting for some users has led to suggestions that MintPal was not ready for launch, and at least one altcoin developer has said publicly that it does not wish to have its coin listed on the exchange.
Like many I thought Mintpal V2 would be “good”. So very wrong. @MintPalExchange you have no permission to list CoinmarketsCoin. $JBS
— Julian AKA The Truth (@jyap) October 7, 2014
One user posted that the MintPal user interface template had been purchased from digital media marketplace Envato.
The company commented on the Twitter thread that the ProUI template was originally intended to be temporary, stating:
“We are going to continue work on fixing the current issues, then focus on improving and refining wherever we can. Getting rid of the template designed for an internal prototype is a definite priority. First comes the account issues. We’re in this for the long haul.”
Images via Shutterstock, MintPal