CoinPayments, a leading cryptocurrency merchant payments solution and wallet service platform, recently announced that it detected an error in its Ripple service which allowed a few users to withdraw excessive XRP from hot wallet XRP accounts.

The startup discovered the error on 05 June 2017. In its official communication to the affected users, CoinPayments explained that the anomaly was hard to detect and was first of its kind on its platform. It added that only Ripple wallets were affected by the error as they were not taking advantage of the company’s long-term coin storage solution, the Vault.

CoinPayments is now making efforts so that affected users can get their funds back. It said that some of the funds have already been returned and it will be working with local and international authorities to ensure that XRP is returned to its rightful owner.

“The people who exploited the glitch were not hackers, but other long term users of our service who made errors or chose not to report the discovered issue and ended up withdrawing other client’s XRP. Their detailed personal information has been collected and they all have been contacted to return the funds immediately. We are in communication with some already and reclamation process has begun with the help of our lawyers”, CoinPayments said (according to the text on NewsBTC).

It further said that it will proceed with the criminal prosecution of those who do not return the funds willingly.

CoinPayments said that it has done a full review of its systems and added additional checks and protections to ensure that similar errors don’t take place in the future. It concluded saying:

“We would like to remind everyone that any coin stored for extended period should always be Vaulted. This service is free and offers the highest level of protection for any funds kept online. Additionally, we will dedicate 1/4 of our revenue flowing directly to effected users until we restore all of the missing value in their accounts. All coins recovered will be evenly distributed among all accounts effected as those come in.”