A Reddit thread has been making the rounds recently, with a user claiming that the Canada-based cryptocurrency exchange platform QuadrigaCX has suspended his account, effectively freezing a sizable amount of Bitcoin from the user.

The user, going by the Reddit handle ”u/eitherproduce”, claims to have a QuadrigaCX account with 108 Bitcoin, which would be worth roughly $719,000 at the time of writing. Moreover, he claims that QuadrigaCX has ”suspended” the account for ”literally no reason”.

Furthermore, the user claims to have sent QuadrigaCX a ticket in response to the matter 24 hours before posting on Reddit and notes that if he does not regain access to his account within 48 hours of his Reddit post, he intends to press ahead with filing a lawsuit against QuadrigaCX.

He notes that his major concern with this situation is that it showcases how easily a platform such as QuadrigaCX can hold someone’s funds hostage – with the mere ”click of a button”.

The user also goes on to state that he will remove all his funds from QuadrigaCX – if, he adds, he actually gets it back.

In addition to this, the user stressed that he wants the matter to receive increased visibility in the form of upvotes. He has also posted his client ID in the Reddit thread, although observers have noted that this could pose a security risk for him.

Moreover, he writes that users of QuadrigaCX should beware that money deposited on the site does not belong to the users, instead belonging to the trading platform.

The user also argues that QuadrigaCX’s behavior sheds light on their legitimacy, and that ”randomly suspending an account with 700k in it” without any notification or explanation ”really shows what kind of scummy bullshit business they are running”.

Observers in the Reddit thread have noted that the user’s account could be under investigation for money laundering – in which case QuadrigaCX would not be required to inform the user of the investigation.

Other commenters took this opportunity to express the importance of controlling one’s own keys, quoting Andreas Antonopoulos – whose latest statements on ETFs were recently covered by Toshi Times – with the user ”fuadiansyah” posting ”Your Keys, Your Bitcoin. Not Your Keys, Not Your Bitcoin”.

According to commenters, the problem of not controlling one’s assets is exacerbated on the QuadrigaCX platform, as any deposited fiat currencies are converted into so-called QuadrigaCX Bucks, which have no relation to Canadian Dollars.

Although it is unclear if these QuadrigaCX Bucks would have any bearing on a potential lawsuit, Reddit user ”shadowofashadow” speculated that he thought ”if you had to sue this would play into it, and not in the consumer’s favor”.

At the moment, it is unclear whether this ”random suspension” is merely a mistake on QuadrigaCX’s part, symptomatic of larger problems with the QuadrigaCX service, or the result of an ongoing investigation, potentially related to AML regulations. We will continue to cover this topic if it develops.

Image Source: “Flickr”