Italian cryptocurrency exchange Bitgrail has claimed that it has lost nearly $170 million worth of Nano tokens in a recent hack, according to Engadget.

In an announcement on its official website, Bitgrail said that on the basis of internal verification checks “unauthorized transactions have emerged that have led to a shortfall of n. 17 Mln of Nano ca forming part of the portfolios managed by Bitgrail Srl.” The company said that it has filed a complaint with competent police authorities, adding that investigations are underway.

This is the second major hack since the beginning of 2018. In January, Japanese exchange Coincheck lost around $500 million in NEM tokens to hackers.

In a tweet, BitGrail founder Francesco "The Bomber" Firano said that it would not be possible for the exchange to refund 100 percent of the lost funds to the customers.

Previously known as “RaiBlocks”, Nano (XRB) is currently at the 24th position in the list of cryptocurrencies market cap. In an official statement, Nano said:

“From our own preliminary investigation, no double spending was detected on the ledger and we have no reason to believe the loss was due to an issue in the Nano protocol. The problems appear to be related to BitGrail’s software.

“We now have sufficient reason to believe that Firano has been misleading the Nano Core Team and the community regarding the solvency of the BitGrail exchange for a significant period of time.”

Francesco refuted the Nano’s argument and said that these are “unfounded accusations.”