Bitcoin Forum

It will be useful to have a thread that aggregates all legitimate reports of various abuses and bad practices of crypto exchanges, such as:

- KYC shotguns from "Non-KYC exchanges"
- Frozen funds/accounts because of reasons not specified in the conditions of use/ToS
- Frozen funds due to the use of risk-scoring tools that give dubious/false AML scores (like AMLBot for example)
- KYC requested by a non-registered company
- Other abuses..

The goal here is to keep track of reports, posts and threads published on this subject, as they are too often deleted and poorly indexed. For a complaint post to be credible/added to this table, there must be sufficient indication of the nature of the problem, and evidence that the situation cited is real.

The table below classifies the various incidents by date. I'll continue to add to this table as I find new information, and with the new incidents that appear regularly. All users are welcome to report their case here, or if they have already shared their case in Scam Accusations to post the link of their thread there, it would help us to have the most complete list possible, and thus provide our community with an overview of these incidents, giving us the means to know how some exchanges are acting against their users' interests.

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Other resources (general info about malpractices, cases without enough evidences to be added to the main list):

General Information: What is "shotgun KYC" or "ToS-scam"? (https://ninjastic.space/post/62957496)

Altmarkets.io: Altmarkets.io - Scam! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5291764.0)
Binance: Binance Freezes Palestinian Crypto Wallets on Israel's Orders! (https://www.cointribune.com/en/binance-admits-to-freezing-palestinian-crypto-wallets-on-the-orders-of-israel/) + BINANCE STOLE OVER $10K FROM ME – NEED HELP FROM THE COMMUNITY (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5536424.0) + Binance Stuck My withdrawal (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5370726)
Bitmart: Account Frozen Due to Suspicion of Money Laundering  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5474584.0)
Bitswap.kr: Don't use Bitswap.kr (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5405630.0)
Boltz: address blocking due to CoinJoin (https://stacker.news/items/926257?commentId=927104)
ByBit: SCAMMED by Bybit.com (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5536204.0)
Changelly: Changelly has been holding my funds for 3 months due to AML Review Without Transparency (https://www.reddit.com/r/TREZOR/s/0CSiApOMqQ)
ChangeNOW: CHANGENOW BAD EXCHANGE SERVICE !!! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5489891.0) + ChangeNow.io (Evercode Lab) - Scam. Illegally holding of 100 BCH (11 bitcoins) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4619534.0) + Changenow.io selective scamming (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4988982.0) + ChangeNOW.io has failed to list or exchange their own NOW tokens. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4996666.0) + ChangeNOW.io Evercode Lab - Scam. Defamation. Abuses. Threats - Russian Business (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5007142.0) + ChangeNOW linked to Exolix and Swapuz (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5520005.msg65191846#msg65191846)
Cripto Intercambio $30k scam accusation wihout enough evidences: Exodus and crypto intercambio have stolen 30k + from me 3 months ago !!!!! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5516958.0) +$350,000 scam accusation without enough evidences:  EXODUS + criptointercambio.com = SCAM (hold funds 350 000$) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5451944.0)
FixedFloat: Antiswap.info on FixedFloat (russian only) (https://antiswap.info/exchanger/FixedFloat-otzyvy?type=negative&sort=DESC) + FixedFloat is holding my funds (https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/11rinux/fixedfloat_is_holding_my_funds/)
Fmfw.io: Bought XMR on Fmfw.io account immediately frozen (https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/194a8ng/bought_xmr_on_fmfwio_account_immediately_frozen/) + Frozen XMR on Fmfw.io (https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/194a8ng/comment/kqrnw1w/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Gate.io: Gate.io blocked my funds and the problem has not been resolved for more a month (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5486904.0)
Godex.io: [SCAM WARNING] Godex locked my coins  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5540023.0)
HitBTC: HitBTC scam! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2556342.0) + SCAMMED by HitBTC (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5487990.0) + HitBTC scam (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5390876.0)
Kucoin: kucoin withdraw block nightmare. STAY AWAY FROM KUCOIN (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5469916.0)
MEXC: Bad experience with MEXC blocking funds (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5520005.msg65289682#msg65289682)
Quickex.io: Quickex blocking a deposit issued from CoinJoin because of "several risk tags" and requesting KYC (https://ninjastic.space/post/65130561)
SimpleSwap.io:  Scammed by SimpleSwap.io - Stephanie - SCAM REPORT / CRIMINALS. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5521572)
Swapuz: Why you should avoid to use Swapuz (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5508552.msg64516309#msg64516309)
WhiteBit: Info and fraud accusations against Whitebit (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5531694.msg65070033#msg65070033)
Wirex: Scammed by Wirex (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5305033.0) + wirex is SCAM! (https://ninjastic.space/topic/3259407) + Wirex - Scam again (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5097804.0) + WIREX APP BECOME SCAM? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2375253.0) +  Beware!! Wirex/E-coin Worst bitcoin card ever! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1960440)

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Thread self-moderated to avoid troll / spam.
Last update:  April 2025

Not sure who will be the trolls in such a good topic but anyway.
Most of these exchanges are big and they have millions of clients. Obviously no one is perfect. When you have millions to deal, there will be always a percentage who will be mismanaged. I am not saying this will justify the victims but we can not ignore the fact too.

Personally I have very conservative impression for Changelly, ChangeNOW.
I am not much familiar with Cripto Intercambio, HTX, Quickex.io, Paytiz so there are no opinion about them from me.
Kraken, Kucoin, FixedFloat, Binance and some others never been created any negative image in my mind (until now).

Yeah, I check recent incidents from time to time, as some of them are returning funds at the end.

But temporality does matter: for example, we can see that Kraken has already solved the case, whereas in (about) two months HTX still hasn't done anything about the 1500 XMR. Even taking into account their large customer base, this is clearly an abuse, even if it only concerned 0.1% of their users, it shouldn't exist at all.

The fact of accumulating as many of these incidents as possible (which themselves should represent only a small percentage of the total number of incidents that are not communicated online) in this list will make it easier to know for which exchange this is a deliberated part of their business model, and which exchange has "only" isolated/occasional problems.

In the long term, it will be interesting to see who is often mentioned in the list, and who is never!

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List updated: Adding line

List updated: adding one line

List updated: adding one line

It's a good idea to compile all information about scams by exchanges in one place to better keep track of them. There are so many issues with these custodial services and most of them never get reported publicly because people are afraid that if they speak out it will diminish their chances of ever getting their money back. If you started going through the pages on the Scam Accusation board you would surely find more cases that fit the criteria you posted in the OP.

Yes, and there's also the fact that some of these companies are very efficient at deleting such reports (for example a lot of corrupted moderation on Dread, or there are a lot of deleted posts on Reddit and so on...)


Yeah currently I'm still browsing Scam Accusations and some other forums/subreddits, I'll update the list soon with new (old) cases. Scam Accusations is full of accusations against casinos btw, makes searching less efficient when focusing on CEXs cases.

Just updated the list. First case of the year added:

Thanks for this list paid2, we will now have a go-to thread for the list of exchanges that have issues. This is just the tip of the iceberg with so many issues with the exchanges that everyone uses. If I see some of them in the scam accusations board, mostly the recent ones I'll also post them here just to contribute even for a bit.

Both Reference links are the same. The latest date on the link is 13 days before November 24, and it says the account has been Unfrozen. The links are messy and hard to read, but am I missing something here?

Thank you for noticing and pointing it out! I've updated the OP with accurate information and link (by the way it seems this archive service is not working well right now):


"Nov. 24" should be read like "November 2024". The whole table was broken (at least from my screen) when I tried to write the full date (I mean including the day).

However as I understand the thread on Reddit, up to today the funds are only partially returned:

https://oshi.at/Tyod/uCrX.png
https://oshi.at/Tyod/uCrX.png
https://oshi.at/jDzJ/Aokg.png
https://oshi.at/jDzJ/Aokg.png

(I'm working on improving this table, and will update it when it will be ready.)

Adding old cases to the list:





The second list, “other ressources”, has also been updated and is now more readable.

More old cases added:


More links added to the second list "other resources".

You should consider converting this table into a website.

Then you could scale all of the cases of missing crypto deposits to users on social media such as X.

News websites could site your resource when the article is about an exchange.

And you would get a lot more visibility and reach that way.

Currently this list only includes scam accusations that have been make on bitcointalk, but we know that even more happen off-site.

That'd be an excellent idea if OP is able to do it and keep it maintained; as it stands I'm just hoping he has enough motivation to keep this thread up to date as time passes, because I've seen quite a few with a similar theme get abandoned for whatever reason.

"KYC shotgun".  Never heard that term in my life, and yet I know exactly what it means.  Also, I didn't realize that


was a problem with the non-KYC exchanges still in existence.  By 'non-registered' I'm assuming that means some entity that has no standing to enforce KYC regulations?  Anyway, I missed this thread when you created it, OP.  I'm glad you did, and keep up the good work!

You have no legal standing to require documents from other users if you yourself are not vetted by a government agency. (i.e. have licenses to take such data.)

There are some services, e.g. Pi Network that absolutely demand your documents to withdraw but as far as I know of, none of those are registered companies with a regulatory license.

For those services, it's the other way around: they have no reason to follow privacy regulations, because they're untouchable.

Thank you for the suggestion!

Indeed, most of the cases on the current list are from Bitcointalk (and only a few from Reddit). I'm already trying to find other sources, but it's quite difficult to find credible cases with enough evidences on social networks when you're not very active on them yourself.

I've been planning for some time to publish a minimalist page that would mirror this list - and potentially propose some more information (it's only a matter of time, should be done within the current year). It would be great to get to the point where users could share their cases themselves directly on the website for review before publication, but that would require a certain amount of notoriety that I'm far from having now. :)


Indeed, an unregistered / unregulated entity has no legal ground to receive/store/process the legal documents of its users. We should even consider it dangerous to send one's legal documents to random people on the Internet, and all these unregistered API resellers who use KYC procedures as a pretext to confiscate (and often to keep) people's funds, are in reality probably no more than greedy private individuals behind their laptops (at least from a legal perspective. In reality we could easily suspect that they are often part of a well organized scheme..).

Also, this hurts the whole ecosystem by maintaining the myth that there are “clean” and “dirty” crypto, as well as hurting users' privacy and data security, and in most cases it's simply illegal. Unfortunately, it became a whole part of their business model.

What's more, it's often totally hypocritical. For example, Germany recently seized 47 exchanges (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5509747.0) for money laundering reasons, even though these exchanges were performing "AML checks" and imposing KYC on their users lol.


Motivation is not a problem :)
As long as I'm active here, I'll keep my threads up to date when necessary. And normally - unless there's a catastrophe - I plan to remain active here for a long time to come touching wood.

New case added, LTC deposit frozen, involving Coinbase:

Once again Thank you for creating this thread @paid2

 
The thread i created has been updated. More evidence added.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5511957.new#new

Once again to all, I would strongly suggests to stay away from ChangeNow.io

Further notes,

Exolix and Swapuz, both owned by ChangeNOW, were exposed for falsely claiming to operate separately. After being reported to Kycnot.me, they were delisted due to inconsistencies and because they lied to the community.

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5508552.msg64516309#msg64516309

[2] (search for 'Exolix') https://web.archive.org/web/20220213142831/swapuz.com/assets/index.223d937f.js

I have added two cases from the forum to the secondary list "Other resources" (perhaps they'll be added to the main list later if OPs share more evidence): BINANCE STOLE OVER $10K FROM ME – NEED HELP FROM THE COMMUNITY (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5536424.0) and SCAMMED by Bybit.com (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5536204.0)

As far as I know, this case was never resolved (@shasan?): Binance Stuck My withdrawal (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5370726.0).
My (incomplete) summary:

Thank you for sharing this case, I didn't know it. I've added it to the second list. We can clearly speak of malpractice, the whole story is completely WTF... Funny how Binance talks and thinks in USD when it suits them.

However, I think the problem should have been solved somehow by now, because I think that shasan continues to use Binance (you can see it in his Lending topic where he shares Binance “internal IDs” with other users, as well as in some screenshots). I'll ask him about it, I wonder if it's really solved (and how), and also how he can still trust them.

hm, there is lack of transparency.

Tell us more?

Hey paid2, you might want to check out this case if it should make your list: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5509759.msg65263374#msg65263374

Thank you for sharing this link.

This case is now added to the list:

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A link to your post has been added to the secondary list with the other ChangeNOW information.

I've also added a link about Boltz which blocks addresses linked to Coinjoin transactions.

The second list has been updated to make it easier to read.

Hey paid2, you should take a look at this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/TREZOR/s/0CSiApOMqQ

I had a horrible Experience with MEXC.
I sent them some funds (pocket money), but those got blocked for no reason.
They want me to send ID's, and they don't want to disclose the reason why.
I suspect that the previous owner mixed those funds.
Of course, a big middle finger to them.
My privacy is worth more than that.

I don't have a reference for this, nor have I posted on a thread, but I wanted to share, here, as I have just discovered this thread and I find it very worth.

I did not know about this thread and I did not have it included in my thread, but today I discovered this one so it is added immediately to my thread.

Events made you scare about custodial wallets, centralized exchanges. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5509759.0)

I am sorry for your terrible experience with MEXC but it is not strange though. Many events like this happened for years on centralized exchanges and even if you sacrifice your privacy, anonymity to do KYC, there is risky scenario of privacy lost, anonymity lost but your fund will be lost too.

Some other terrible deposits and account freeze actions on Binance, OKX were reported. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5509759.msg65272787#msg65272787)

Two new cases have been added to the list:

(I found this one thanks to SilverCryptoBullet's thread)

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Thanks for sharing!
I've added it to the secondary list (some information are missing before I can add it to the main list).



Thank you for taking the time to share your experience here. Luckily, it didn't seem to be too much funds apparently. I think you've done very well to avoid to give your data to these thieves, privacy is priceless.

I've added the link of your post to the secondary list.

Alright, I guess I've to stick to the info you mentioned in the op. Btw here's one from Godex: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5540023.0

Sorry for the delay. Thank you for sharing this case!

It's now added to the second list:


By the way, it seems that it is becoming more and more rare for a CEX to be clear in their own terms of use AND to adhere to them for real...

Their terms are the exact opposite of what they advertise on their site and thread on Bitcointalk. That alone should be a very big red flag for any exchanger.
Now that I think about it: this could be worth a separate list, as a warning even before any exchanger freezes funds.

How many instant exchangers honestly gave all the information here (or anywhere)? Everything ends up being taken at their word until the locking of the funds happens.
What is obvious, Whitebit, Changenow, and FF have the most developed network of resellers, and the most complaints are about them when it comes to freezing funds and additional KYC requirements. Every exchanger, new or existing, would have to provide accurate information about who their liquidity provider is. If it is one of the mentioned three, the exchanger deserves the "high risk" badge.

Only the good ones, I guess. The ones who don't say "no KYC" and then create long Terms that say they can ask KYC and more whenever they want.

I suspect the reason behind that is some sort of “blackmailing” by local authorities or, worst, by other exchanges. They tolerate those low regulated entities if they only nibble on their business. As soon as they want to scale up their business, and no KYC is a legit option for this, they clamp down on them, suffocating them (look what happened with exch).

Why, for example, does it never happen that the exchanger shows a request from the authorities to request KYC of the user for a specific order? Somehow it's been going so far, they just freeze funds, with the explanation that KYC is required, the AML score is bad, it's following the regulation... But none of them shows an explicit request in which this is asked of them

I'm not sure if this is a rhetorical question, but I assume there is no such request. If we're talking about national governments as authorities, there are about 200 different authorities on the planet. And none of them knows who owns the Bitcoin address you're sending to, so none of them can know which exchanger received your funds, so none of them can ask that exchanger within seconds to freeze your funds. This power is entirely concentrated with companies that sell the notion of taint, and none of them are transparent about their criteria. It would be trivially easy for them to publish a list of all "tainted" Bitcoin addresses, updated every block, so anyone who doesn't believe Bitcoin is fungible can easily see what to avoid. But that doesn't fit their business model, their core business is to sell that information one address at a time.
With fiat money, this would be utterly illegal! Governments protect their own money created out of thin air, and wouldn't want 90+% of all bills to be rejected because of the cocaine traces on them.

But after you provide an unknown entity hiding in a tax haven a video holding your passport and a recent utility bill, everything is fine and your funds are okay ::)

The thing is, there's no direct "request" from the authorities, but the exchanges are looking out for themselves. They have to be in the good books of the authorities because if they don't, they could be shut down, and even if they are not shut down, in their POV, it is better to be on the good side of the government than on the bad side.
For they to be on the good side of the authorities and also have their customers trust them, they have to provide a thousand-page "terms of service" and do the exact opposite when it suits them.

It's the same with how the authorities have the banks and other financial organisations by the throat in my country. They have to compromise or face numerous ridiculous issues that will make business difficult for them. It got to a point where I began to see systemic social media campaigns by influencers against a financial institution that refused to yield, till they finally did.
So right now, those institutions don't need a direct request from the authorities before they do what the authorities would want.

Here is an example (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5552339.msg65652640#msg65652640) of a case that came to my mind while I was writing the previous comment. These are coins (USDT token) sent by the user, which ended up at the Whitebit address (probably liquidity partner). These fraudsters were asked several times to show the KYC request they received from the regulator, of course, without an answer. Now it has reached its peak, where they are portraying everything as a negative campaign by the competition (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5552339.msg65719099#msg65719099) against them. :clown