Moopay LTD, the digital currency service provider more commonly known as Moolah, has purchased MintPal, the altcoin exchange which recently suffered from a severe hack that compromised nearly $2m in customer funds.
With the acquisition, Moopay said it plans to use Mintpal as its primary altcoin trading platform. Moolah.io already operates the digital currency exchange Prelude, a subservice of Moopay that focuses on dogecoin and bitcoin.
Alex Green, CEO of Moopay, stated that he believes MintPal will benefit from Moopay’s significant development and security expertise, and that the resulting merger will restore confidence in the exchange, which has seen falling volumes since the hack.
Green told CoinDesk:
“We were attracted to the deal by a few simple reasons. MintPal has one of the best [user interfaces] in the industry, a solid user base and a strong customer following. 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.”
Moopay suggested that its Prelude exchange offering would soon focus only on fiat markets, while MintPal would offer altcoin-to-altcoin trading. Moopay will gradually take over the exchange’s operations, with the transition taking place through the month of August.
Moopay was previously the center of controversy in May, when then prominent members of the dogecoin community raised concerns about its operations. However, the allegations were vocally denounced by both Moopay and Green.
Planned improvements
Moopay indicated that it has a number of security and performance enhancements planned for MintPal, which will roll out over the next few months, though no specific dates were given.
Specifically, Moopay said MintPal would benefit from its 24/7 customer support team, its third-party review system and high-speed desktop-based trading applications.
Moopay said in a statement:
“MintPal will continue in the interim as a standalone exchange, with a view to sharing logins between the two platforms in the near future.”
Notably, the hacking attack against MintPal, while compromising 8 million vericoins (VRC), was not able to successfully affect the exchange’s bitcoin or litecoin wallets. The exchange’s cold storage procedures were ultimately deemed at fault for the vericoin loss, which necessitated a significant developer effort to counteract.
About MintPal
Launched in February, MintPal gained popularity among altcoin traders due to its modern website and strong product offering.
MintPal boasts support for a wide range of altcoins including more mainstream offerings such as dogecoin and litecoin alongside more obscure options such as noblecoin and potcoin.
Image via Moopay