Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange BitForex has halted withdrawals for at least three days, without giving a reason. On the day before the halt, some $56 million in cryptocurrencies were withdrawn from the exchange’s wallets.
In a Feb. 23 post on the X platform, blockchain transaction tracker ZachXBT reported that three BitForex hot wallets recorded outflows worth about $56.5 million in cryptocurrencies before the exchange stopped processing transactions.
X ‘s account on the exchange has not been updated since May 2023. On the official BitForex Telegram channel, users are reporting problems with their accounts, ranging from not being able to access their accounts to the fact that no assets are displayed on the dashboard. Several users have shared screenshots showing that they are blocked from accessing the company’s website.
Cointelegraph tried to open BitForex‘s website, but encountered the same problem. Nevertheless, some specific pages on the exchange’s website are still accessible. For example, the January 31 announcement that BitForex CEO Jason Luo had left the company was still available on the website at the time of publication.
As of September 2023, BitForex was one of the leading global cryptocurrency exchanges by capitalization. Daily trading volume was about $2.6 billion in cryptocurrencies. Currently, CoinMarketCap does not provide live data on BitForex.
In April 2023, the Financial Services Agency of Japan (FSA) accused BitForex of violating the country’s fund clearing regulations. According to the FSA, the exchange was operating in the country without proper registration.
Since then, however, BitForex has not attracted significant attention from regulators or the media.
Last week, another Hong Kong exchange, Atom Asset Exchange (AAX), moved some $55.6 million in Ether from its portfolios. AAX halted all its operations on November 13, 2022, just two days after FTX declared bankruptcy. After the shutdown, former AAX CEO Thor Chan and board member Haoming Liang were arrested by Hong Kong police on 2022.
However, the AAX founder, whose identity remains unknown, is allegedly still on the run with 230 million Hong Kong dollars ($29.41 million) worth of user funds and private access keys to the exchange’s wallets.
