Bitforex Resumes Withdrawals Post Police Investigation

Key takeaways:

• Following a police investigation into its team members, Bitforex announced that its users would be able to withdraw funds for the first time in five months.
• Bitforex states that while customers won’t be able to purchase or sell tokens, they will be able to remove their assets from the site “soon.”

Following a police investigation into its team members, crypto exchange Bitforex announced that its users would be able to withdraw funds for the first time in five months.

Bitforex alleged in an X post dated July 19 that its crew was “detained and investigated” by the Jiangsu Province authorities in China on February 23, rendering the platform unavailable to users. 

The conversation implied that the matter had been handled “after persistent efforts and communication,” but it gave no information regarding any possible criminal probe. According to the Bitforex’s statement:

“On February 23, 2024, the BitForex team was detained and investigated by the Jiangsu Province police in China. This event led to the suspension of the platform and the inability of users to withdraw their assets on that day.”

Bitforex states that while customers won’t be able to purchase or sell tokens, they will be able to remove their assets from the site “soon.” Users withdrew approximately $56 million from the Hong Kong-based exchange on February 23 when the platform ceased to respond to inquiries. Since February 20, Bitforex has not posted anything on X. 

The securities regulator for Hong Kong alerted locals in March that Bitforex was a “suspicious” crypto platform. A lack of communication also resulted in Bitforex being threatened with lawsuits by initiatives such as the memecoin CatCoin.

Only a few weeks before the platform stopped accepting withdrawals, former Bitforex CEO Jason Luo announced his resignation in January. He updated his X account on July 19 with the same statement about the police inquiry.

As noted by SomaXBT and other on-chain analysts, the hot wallet became operational once more, which may impact cryptocurrency withdrawals and other market activity.

In accordance with the CBOE, “pending regulatory effectiveness,” the Chicago Board Options Exchange will offer five spot Ethereum ETFs for trading on July 23. The demand from institutions looking to include Ether in their ETFs has surged, potentially leading to scarcity.