In an official statement, the BitForex team informed that its operations were terminated in February due to police investigation and detainment of team members. Now, the platform is allowed to enable asset withdrawal, but the operations will not be restored.
BitForex exchange reopens soon, enables withdrawals after five-month hiatus, official statement says
The team of BitForex, a now-defunct centralized cryptocurrency exchange, shared an official statement after disappearing in February 2024. It says that starting from February 23, the operations were shut down as the team was investigated and detained by the Jiangsu Province police in China.
The representatives of the exchange were unable to communicate timely thanks to "sensitive" nature of the situation while the platform remained inaccessible. Users trying to sign in to their accounts were receiving messages about the restrictions.
At the same time, by mid-July, the team managed to get allowance from the law enforcers to reopen the exchange, in a withdraw-only mode. No trading operations or deposits will be recovered.
Also, new registrations will be halted during the withdrawals campaign. Holders of perpetual contracts will be forced to pass KYC procedures yet again, the statement adds.
The exact timeline for the withdrawal campaign is yet to be announced, but the team is sure about "soon" reopening for old clients.
Tomiwabold OlajidePrior to being shut down by law enforcers, the exchange had been ranked in the top 30 of CEXes by aggregated trading volume. On the spot section, it reached $2 billion per day in early 2024.
Scam alert: No, you cannot get your BitForex funds back today
The exchange operations were halted on February 23, 2024, without prior notifications. The team kept silence, but the accident was preceded by a $57 million transaction from the BitForex hot wallet.
The exchange is also a major holder of Tellor (TRB) cryptocurrency, a token of the eponymous blockchain oracle network. The TRB price mysteriously quadrupled in just three weeks right before the BitForex shutdown. The exchange CEO also resigned some days prior to the team disappearing.
BitForex remains the largest holder of OMI micro-cap that pumped by 100% in January 2024.
The representatives of BitForex added that the official campaign through the main website of the exchange is the only way to recover assets from accounts. As such, users should stay away from scammers that offer "emergency" withdrawal of crypto with high priority earlier compared to the official schedule.
BitForex Token (BF), the official utility crypto of the collapsed exchange, added only 4% on the potential withdrawals announcement.
Arman Shirinyan
Alex Dovbnya