According to reports, the Nigerian retail trading software Patricia has converted the Bitcoin (BTC) and other tokens owned by its users into Patricia Token (PTK), a proprietary token.

The company touted PTK as a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, where 1 PTK is equal to $1, in a recent release unveiling its new app, Patricia Plus. Customers of Patricia are still unsure, meanwhile, as to whether they will finally be able to retrieve their money.

Following the revelation of a security issue in May 2023, Patricia temporarily stopped allowing withdrawals for users of its site. The company informed its customers that it had suffered an undisclosed loss and indicated that both Bitcoin and Naira assets had been impacted.

Patricia did not specify when its cryptocurrency exchange was hacked, although it was probably around January 2022. Up to $2 million was reportedly lost as a result of the breach.

Users expressed their worries and annoyance on Twitter after the suspension of withdrawals on the Patricia platform, noting the problems brought on by the circumstance. The business maintained its commitment to enhancing the platform’s security procedures in spite of the criticism.

Since its establishment in 2017, Patricia has become well-known for its trading services in cryptocurrencies and gift cards, which have turned it into a target for bad actors. Patricia was one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges on the continent as of the beginning of 2021 with over 800,000 users.

According to Patricia CEO Fejiro Hanu Agbodje, sponsoring Big Brother Naija (BB Naija) in 2021 was a pricey investment, but it was well worth it because Patricia was the only and first exchange to do so.

Due to consumer demand, the portal, which was initially created as a place to buy gift cards, entered the cryptocurrency market. In the podcast, Hanu claimed that there were numerous scams targeting consumers, including himself, and that this was why a secure site for buying cryptocurrency was required.