Amid growing fears and rumors, its founder Mingxing Xu remains missing. Chinese media believe that it is unlikely that there can be a solution to the situation in a short time.
More than two weeks ago, Bitcoin exchange OKEx suspended withdrawals from its platform. Since that time, rumors about the whereabouts of its founder Mingxing Xu have grown. Meanwhile, impatience and nervousness take hold of users who request the acceleration of the procedures for the resumption of withdrawals.
The exchange suddenly froze withdrawals from the platform on October 16th. They alleged that one of the owners of the service’s private keys is “cooperating with a public security bureau that requested him.” Local Chinese media claim that the owner of the private key in question is the founder of OKEx, Mingxing “Star” Xu. They say that he is supposedly in prison and that no one has seen him since then.
The company resumed peer-to-peer trading on October 21st. This service does not require the mobilization of the locked funds. According to data from Glassnode, this would be around 200,000 BTC ($ 2.8 billion).
Regarding the OKEx case, the decision to enable the operations of its peer-to-peer platform reveals that the police investigation into “Star” Xu would be a personal matter. However, it can also be a sign that the founder has refused to provide the key to resume the withdrawal of cryptocurrencies.
An OKEx team may be negotiating a deal with the founder, but nothing has worked until now. If “Star” Xu is not free in the next two weeks, the prosecution must arrest him. That means that he is unlikely to be innocent, which will further complicate the situation.
The wave of rumors and conspiracies surrounding the Okex case darkens the picture. No one knows yet the real reason why the platform cannot resume the withdrawal of funds. However, the police may have frozen the withdrawal of cryptocurrencies as part of the investigation. If that is the case, it is not possible to determine at this time when users will be able to withdraw their bitcoins.
Users Request Release of Their Bitcoins
Hundreds of users on social networks are requesting OKEx to release their funds. Some of them say that, with the situation that occurred on OKEx, they have learned never to trust a centralized exchange to safeguard their cryptocurrencies. What happened may confirm the old saying that “if you don’t have the keys, they aren’t your coins.”
To calm things down, Okex recently released a new statement. With this, it seeks to inform that, although it is not possible to make withdrawals yet, the rest of its services work as usual. They added that “loyal” users, who are still public, even if they cannot withdraw money, will receive rewards with lower transaction fees. They say that this will be the case even up to 30 days after withdrawals from the platform resume.
By Alexander Salazar
