After the news we shared on the Koin Bulletin yesterday, Bittrex made a statement about the suspension of thousands of people’s accounts. According to Bittrex’s site:
“We do occasional compliance reviews and work hard to protect our users from any harm and to keep our service running. As part of our compliance review, we’ve temporarily suspended some accounts pending their review. The number of suspended, closed, banned accounts is quite low: less than 0.1% of accounts on Bittrex. More than 99.9% of accounts on Bittrex have had no issues.”
Everyone was already aware that the vast majority of accounts on Bittrex did not encounter any problems. The real thing is that the 0.1% part closing thousands of accounts and it’s still closed.
Big Bucks Are at the End
Since Bittrex is headquartered in the USA, it’s understandable that they do such compatibility reviews. Especially since it’s a Bitcoin exchange. Considering the recent events that the US-based Bitfinex has experienced with the law, it is also a good thing that Bittrex works so carefully.
However, there is something strange about it. Thousands of people whose accounts were closed did not receive a warning or an explanation from Bittrex. In other words, thousands of people’s accounts were suddenly closed without any explanation. Among these users, there are also those who say that they have large amounts in their account. Comment from one of these users:
“Please help…I have about 6 Bitcoins in my account…I am losing money :/ Bittrex reopen my account for only 10 minutes so I can withdraw my money.”
Users whose accounts have been “temporarily suspended” may Had he received an email from Bittrex regarding the situation; this event would not cause people to be suspicious.
Lack of communication
Commenting on the situation, one of the Bittrex users emphasized that the main problem was the lack of communication:
“For whatever reason, not responding to your customers’ problems, not making a statement, is reason enough for me to withdraw my money from Bittrex.”
As we mentioned in yesterday’s article, there was literally no explanation from Bittrex before the accounts were closed. In addition, the notifications sent to Bittrex’s support team were not answered even after days. In other words, they did not make a public statement, nor did they make a one-to-one statement to the users.
Other Comments
This is also included in the statement from Bittrex:
“All reports that Bittrex made a mistake in setting transaction fees, that there was a problem with the security of the exchange, that Bittrex lost funds from users’ accounts, and that users were banned from accessing Slack for account closure support are false. We are committed to making Bittrex a safe, powerful and compliant exchange where people can safely engage in the digital currency economy. We ask our dear customers to be patient. In the meantime, we will remain calm and continue.”
In this case, one of the two parties is lying. Bittrex says it does not ban users who try to get support through Slack; A considerable number of users who commented on the situation say that they were banned from Slack, which they entered to get support.
Continue
Bittrex apparently intends to “keep calm and move on”. So what will happen to users affected by this behavior of Bittrex? Currently, Bittrex is either not responding to users’ notifications or the system is extremely slow. It is not surprising that the system has slowed down, as the support teams of Bitcoin exchanges such as Poloniex and Coinbase are also receiving an above-normal number of notifications from users.
Bittrex customers, on the other hand, are still wondering when their accounts will be opened or if they will be opened at all. If there are more explanations from Bittrex, you can follow them on the Koin Bulletin.