The biggest cryptocurrency theft in history? Two South African brothers steal 3000 million euros bitcoins - The two South African brothers disappear with more than 3,000 million euros in bitcoins.

Two South African brothers have vanished with more than 3,000 million euros in bitcoins, in what could be the largest cryptocurrency theft in history, according to local media such as the Independent Online or ITWeb.

Ameer Cajee, 20, and his little brother Raees, 17, founded the cryptocurrency investment platform Africrypt in 2019.

In a short time they took 69,000 bitcoins worth 4,000 million dollars in the peak of April, although now they have fallen considerably.

It all started when in April, Ameer, the company's chief operating officer, informed his clients that Africrypt had been hacked, compromising the entire structure of accounts, portfolios and nodes.

Two South African brothers steal 3000 million euros bitcoins

Ameer suspiciously told users not to notify the authorities of what had happened, apologizing that doing so would defeat attempts to recover the funds.

However, some clients who were not convinced by this argument and contacted the law firm Hanekom Attorneys, as reported by the Independent Online, which tried, unsuccessfully, to contact the brothers. Later the police would do the same. And so far.

Two South African brothers steal 3000 million euros bitcoins: "We immediately suspected that they were asking investors not to take legal action," the firm told Bloomberg.

Hanekom Attorneys also find it rather suspicious that 7 days before the alleged attack Africrypt employees lost access to the platform as administrators. The firm recommends that its clients raise the alarm if they find any" suspicious conversion " of currencies.

In this sense, the FNB bank is also in the spotlight of the researchers, although the latter has denied any relationship with the company.

Two South African brothers steal 3000 million euros bitcoins

"FNB confirms once again that it does not have a banking relationship with Africrypt. Due to customer confidentiality, FNB cannot provide any information on specific bank accounts," a spokesperson told the Independent Online.

This has not been the only obstacle for researchers. The South African financial regulator has disguised itself that cryptocurrencies are not under its jurisdiction, so they can not do anything, reports the same medium.

Africrypt's website is down, as is the profile of most of its social networks. Of the founding brothers there is no trace but some photos on the web. And the money, nothing.

Two South African brothers steal 3000 million euros bitcoins

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Markets in 2021 look a lot like what happened in 2004-here's what we can learn about what happened then

2021 is, for the moment, a year of economic recovery and return to normal marked by a massive vaccination that allows us to start forgetting COVID 19. The effort of governments after the pandemic feeds the good economic forecasts and, given this situation, the investment bank Morgan Stanley finds similarities with 2004 to direct its bets on the future.

In a small audio pill, Morgan Stanley's head of cross-asset strategy, Andrew Sheets, says that his analysts ' forecasts for the coming years coincide with many of the scenarios that occurred after the first half of 2004.

Sheets, which is concerned with identifying investment opportunities and risk of different global assets for the bank, says that the current moment has echoes of many past eras-a comparison exercise that many investors follow as a guide to move their money.

"The strong post-pandemic recovery may resemble the happy 20s, while government support is similar to that of the 30s," Sheets explains. "But the low interest rates, the high savings margin and the government's indebtedness are something that already happened in the' 50s," he continues.

High inflation already occurred in the 70s, while stock market activity driven by retail investors is similar to the 90s, " says Morgan Stanley's head of investment.

Despite the number of historical moments to look at, Sheets stresses that the first half of 2004 is the best indicator of how markets will respond at the time we live.

Pointing to levels of unemployment in the United States in 2004, similar to current levels, and expected volatility and inflation this year that fit with what was experienced then, Sheets predicts that the stock market will take a break of several months as it did in 2004.

"We expect a market with ups and downs during the summer," he told CNBC just over a month ago.

Values in 2004 ended the year on the rise, Sheets says, and the dollar performed somewhat better than other currencies. The European stock market, however, performed better than those of the US, warns Sheets, foreshadowing that this situation will happen again this year.