Bitfinex Reportedly Not Accepting Fiat Deposits

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has halted U.S. dollar deposits, according to multiple sources. The move comes just days after the firm said its fiat processing systems were functioning normally.

Also see: YoBit Raises Eyebrows with ‘Random Coin’ Pump Campaign



Subscribe to the Bitsonline YouTube channel for great videos featuring industry insiders & experts

Your Money’s No Good Here

According to reports from multiple sources, British Virgin Islands-based Bitfinex has acutely stopped allowing its customers to deposit U.S. dollars, and possibly other fiat currencies, into their accounts.

Zooming in closer, further detail can be seen here:

Recent reports have held that the exchange’s Puerto Rico-based bank, Noble Bank International, was facing insolvency and that Bitfinex had switched to a private account with British bank HSBC. Fiat dollar deposits were being routed through a bank account registered in the U.S. state of Arizona.

But now, according to Larry Cermak, analyst at The Block, dollars can no longer be deposited to this account either:

Independent journalist Robert-Jan den Haan also confirmed seeing proof that fiat deposits had been halted:

Bitfinex Repudiates Talk of Its Demise

Late last week, on October 7th, Bitfinex published a blog post entitled A Response To Recent Online Rumours, in which the company denied it was having problems processing fiat:

“Both fiat and cryptocurrency withdrawals are functioning as normal. Verified Bitfinex users can freely withdraw Euros, Japanese Yen, Pounds Sterling and U.S. Dollars. Complications continue to exist for us in the domain of fiat transactions, as they do for most cryptocurrency-related organisations.”

The firm also provided links to three cold wallets for bitcoin, ether and EOS which it said that it controls. The bitcoin wallet holds more than $878 million USD, while the ether wallet holds $333 million and the EOS wallet holds $176 million.

The blog post also said that any news about “an entity called Noble Bank,” had no impact to the exchange’s operations. Bloomberg reported in May that Noble Bank had taken on Bitfinex as a customer and that the firm had reportedly relied on bank accounts from a payment processor, Crypto Capital Corp., which was then based in Panama but has since moved to Switzerland. That came after Bitfinex lost the ability to make fiat transfers with its previous bank, Wells Fargo.

Familiar Problems for Bitfinex

This isn’t the first time that Bitfinex has had trouble processing fiat. In June, there were reports that Bitfinex customers were unable to make deposits. Wait times as long as two to three weeks were reported for deposits as large as $100,000.

Further reporting by Bitsonline in July found further complaints by Bitfinex customers in withdrawing and depositing fiat to Bitfinex. One customer of the exchange provided documents to Bitsonline which purported to show that a $60,000 deposit to Bitfinex had not been processed after a month. The customer reportedly filed a complaint with Hong Kong police.

Are you Bitfinex customer who has had problems depositing or withdrawing funds from the exchange? Let us know in the comments.



Images via Twitter, Pixabay

