BitForex, a cryptocurrency exchange located in Hong Kong, has stopped accepting withdrawals for at least three days without citing a cause. Approximately $56 million in cryptocurrency had been taken out of the exchange’s wallets the day before the halt. On-chain detective ZachXBT said in an X post dated February 23 that three BitForex hot wallets had cryptocurrency withdrawals totaling over $56.5 million before the exchange ceased operations.
Since May 2023, there have been no updates to the exchange’s X account. Users of BitForex are experiencing issues with their accounts on its official Telegram channel. These issues range from not being able to access their accounts to the dashboard not displaying any assets. A pop-up screen indicating they are prohibited from visiting the company’s website was posted by many people.
BitForex Had Been Charged By Japan For Breaking Nation’s Money Regulations
When Cointelegraph attempted to access the website, the same issue persisted. On the exchange’s website, a few particular pages are still active, nevertheless. For instance, at the time of writing, the website still had an announcement from January 31 stating that BitForex CEO Jason Luo had departed the firm. Based on market capitalization, BitForex was one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges in the world in September 2023. It was exchanging almost $2.6 billion worth of cryptocurrency per day.
It was charged by Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) in April 2023 with breaking the nation’s money settlement regulations. The FSA claims that the exchange was operating in the nation without the required registration. But neither the media nor authorities have paid much attention to the company since then. Atom Asset Exchange (AAX), a different Hong Kong exchange, shifted over $55.6 million worth of Ether ETH tickers down $3,234 from its wallets last week.
