Bitforex Suspends Withdrawals Following $56M Outflow; AAX's Former CEO Arrested
Summary:
Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitforex abruptly suspended its withdrawal services for an unknown reason, following the outflow of approximately $56 million from its wallets. Bitforex users reported access issues on the platform, and it was also flagged for violation of fund settlement laws by Japan's Financial Services Agency previously. In related news, another Hong Kong exchange, Atom Asset Exchange (AAX), transferred around $55.6 million worth of Ether from its wallets, and its ex-CEO and a board member were apprehended by police.
Bitforex, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Hong Kong, has unexpectedly halted its withdrawal services for an indefinite period of three days, failing to provide a reason for the sudden stoppage. It has also been observed that prior to this move, the exchange had seen an outflow of nearly $56 million in digital currency. This suspicious activity was flagged by ZachXBT, a well-known whistleblower in the world of crypto scams. Zach noticed that three hot wallets associated with Bitforex had experienced outflows of around $56.5 million, and soon after these incidences, the exchange put a freeze on withdrawals.
Furthermore, users of Bitforex are voicing concerns regarding their accounts through their official Telegram channel. Reported issues range from being unable to login to their accounts to their dashboards reflecting nothing. A number of users also stated that they are seeing a pop-up message indicating that they have been blocked from the site altogether. Cointelegraph tested this claim and ran into the same roadblock during the attempt. Surprisingly though, certain specific pages on the Bitforex site remain accessible, such as the announcement dated January 31 which shares news of CEO Jason Luo's departure from Bitforex.
As of September 2023, Bitforex was considered one of the top global crypto exchanges based on its market capitalization, boasting a daily trading volume of about $2.6 billion in crypto. However, CoinMarketCap has since stopped updating live data on Bitforex.
It should also be noted that in April 2023, Bitforex was accused by Japan's Financial Services Agency of breaching their fund settlement laws, alongside several other cryptocurrency platforms. The accusation was that these platforms were operating their business within the country without valid registration. Bitforex, however, avoided any major regulatory scrutiny or media attention following these allegations.
In related news, another Hong Kong-based exchange, the Atom Asset Exchange (AAX), recently shifted around $55.6 million worth of Ether from its wallets. The former CEO of AAX, Thor Chan, and board member Haoming Liang were subsequently arrested by Hong Kong police in 2022 after the exchange ceased operations abruptly in November of that year, merely two days after FTX filed for bankruptcy. The founder of AAX, who remains to be identified, is alleged to have fled with HKD 230 million ($29.41 million) of user funds and the private keys to the exchange's wallets.
Published At
2/26/2024 1:54:14 PM
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