Bitfinex- bank blocked all their deposits

[Zooplus]

Bitfinex doesn't have competent team behind and they always have some glitches and they are known to have lots of security holes. I still can't forget how they got hacked few months ago which lead to massive price crash. They must shut down their exchange and we must stay away from them.

I have already stopped using them after they got hacked.

Good move, it's hard to trust a site after the hacking incident, seems like your money is not safe with them.
But what they are facing now is out of their control, it is the banking industry that pushes them to that situation.

[Kakmakr]

The banks are up to their old tricks again. Bitfinex gave them an excuse to "protect the consumers" and now they are riding that piss poor excuse to block Bitfinex bank accounts. Some of these exchanges has also not followed the correct channels, when they opened bank accounts for business purposes. < Example : Luno in Nigeria >

The exchanges needs to play the game in the way that satisfy the banking system or they will give them reasons to close these bank accounts. ^grrrrrrr^

[freebutcaged]

Simply change your bank switch to another bank, I doubt if every single banks block their money. banks love money why would they do this? I have never seen any bank refuse your money. in crypto land you shouldn't give any exchange too much power, if we diversify between several exchanges these things would never have happened.

[mayax]

Simply change your bank switch to another bank, I doubt if every single banks block their money. banks love money why would they do this? I have never seen any bank refuse your money. in crypto land you shouldn't give any exchange too much power, if we diversify between several exchanges these things would never have happened.

all the USD transfers are going through USA banks. Wells Fargo or any other intermediary bank will ban any USD wire to the bank who will accept Bitfinex... What bank will risk to lose their clients for...Bitfinex? NONE !

changing the bank is not a solution. yes, the banks are loving the money but they cannot risk their business for one client.
the major intermediary banks for USD are taking measures against money laundering and shits

Bitfinex does not have a financial license anywhere. is it not strange that a company who has a lot of money, didn't apply for a such license until now? yes, it is a lot of paperwork and expenses but these things will bring you many benefits like having a stable banking partner.

Bitfinex and others like them(who wants to be pose smarter than the licensed exchangers) will be closed down, one by one. How? Like that. The banks will ban them and this will be the end.

[Przemax]

I think that banks are involved in the decline of the exchanges.

Firstly, the exchange is having too positive view about the future and makes risky investment plans.

Secondly something very bad happens like a hack of some of the funds that leads to a some insolvency.

Then some bank comes in and offer a very good loan. Later on bank changes the rules of the loan. Those rules are impossible or close to impossible to met so the bank is freezing some of the exchanges assets.

That sittuation makes the exchange clients panic with the help of a paid trolls. Exchange then has no option but to do something radical like goxing their clients or making another loan and say how perfectly solvent they are to keep their PR white clean.

Im not a banker nor a lawyer so please don't crucify me for a possible lack of knowledge on legalities.

[ozgenyes]

why dont major exchanges open a small bank to operate their operations with no pain.

[Amph]

well bitfinex was kinda screwed since the hack, but they promised a refund and they did it i remember so i was hoping for a good return like poloniex, but this decision certainly kill it for good

dunno why people still use it, there are much better alternative, if you are in euro Kraken is the best and was never hacked, otherwise coinbase, i would avoid bitstamp, which was also hacked...

i think their solution is to change their bank like bitstamp did in the past, which was in ucrania i believe, if not mistaken

[DoublerHunter]

This situation for bitfinex can be a threat for the bitcoin price to go down because many of the bitcoin users will see this is a bad news that can damage ng image of the bitcoin because bitfinex is one of the most well known and one of the biggest exchanger and the blocked deposits will be threat for us.

[ImHash]

This situation for bitfinex can be a threat for the bitcoin price to go down because many of the bitcoin users will see this is a bad news that can damage ng image of the bitcoin because bitfinex is one of the most well known and one of the biggest exchanger and the blocked deposits will be threat for us.

Well, price is at $1210 right now so I think we can consider the danger to bitcoin's price and it's dropping down below has been eliminated, it wouldn't damage anything other than people leaving that exchange and they no longer collecting their fees and it's not like they're blocking you from withdrawal of BTC, there are other well established exchanging services to do your business nothing to worry.

[talkbitcoin]

as soon as you start feeling the drama is over and want to take a breath in peace you'll see another drama pop up and the community starts talking about it everywhere. don't get me wrong it is good to inform but the drama part is a unique aspect of bitcoin.

i really hope the news is actually what it seems to be. the bank blocking their deposits not bitfninex doing some shady stuff and preparing a run away plan. although they could have done it much easier and with more money back when they were hacked.

[loposki]

shouldn't bitfinex have backup accounts in other countries? why put the fate of all their business in one country's account. If this is their only account, then I mus say they have failed to plan.

[alyssa85]

People ought to withdraw their coins while they still can. It seems very unusual for all the Taiwan banks to block them.

These problems date back to Wells Fargo blocking $180 million of their funds about a week ago:

https://themerkle.com/wells-fargo-blocks-180m-in-funds-belonging-to-ifinex-and-tether-customers/

They would only do something that big if a regulator stepped in and asked them to.

[DooMAD]

Always err on the side of caution when it comes to exchanges.  This might not be another Gox, but why take the risk?  I'd recommend taking action sooner as you may not have the option to later.  If you can't withdraw in fiat, withdraw in BTC or an alt and then transfer it to another exchange.  But a small word of warning for those who aren't aware, or have only dealt with a single exchange up to this point, always withdraw to your funds to your own wallet first (preferably one where you are in direct control of the private keys).  Going from one exchange directly to another exchange usually makes a mess.

[severaldetails]

I don't believe that the bank problem for bitfinex can't be solved.
When they pay, they will find a bank they can cooperate with. Afterall it's money that can be earned for the bank.
From how I read the article, bitfinex had no problems with paying out bitcoins, only delays with US dollars.
And those delays most likely were intensionally created by Wells Fargo.
At least Bitfinex filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo, accusing them for pressuring its banks into blocking its outgoing wire transfers.
But recently Bitfinex dropped that lawsuit again. The reason for that remains unclear.
Right now I see no danger that bitfinext could go bankrupt. They have the money, they just can't move it at the moment.

[alyssa85]

I don't believe that the bank problem for bitfinex can't be solved.
When they pay, they will find a bank they can cooperate with. Afterall it's money that can be earned for the bank.
From how I read the article, bitfinex had no problems with paying out bitcoins, only delays with US dollars.
And those delays most likely were intensionally created by Wells Fargo.
At least Bitfinex filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo, accusing them for pressuring its banks into blocking its outgoing wire transfers.
But recently Bitfinex dropped that lawsuit again. The reason for that remains unclear.
Right now I see no danger that bitfinext could go bankrupt. They have the money, they just can't move it at the moment.

What you have written sounds EXACTLY like what people were saying when MtGox started having problems with fiat withdrawals.

Be cautious and withdraw your coins. If it later turns out that things are fine at bitfinex and they enable withdrawals, then you can start using them again.

The crypto space is so shady that it is better to be safe than sorry (as the victims of mtgox, mintal, cryptsy and others will tell you).

[severaldetails]

I don't believe that the bank problem for bitfinex can't be solved.
When they pay, they will find a bank they can cooperate with. Afterall it's money that can be earned for the bank.
From how I read the article, bitfinex had no problems with paying out bitcoins, only delays with US dollars.
And those delays most likely were intensionally created by Wells Fargo.
At least Bitfinex filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo, accusing them for pressuring its banks into blocking its outgoing wire transfers.
But recently Bitfinex dropped that lawsuit again. The reason for that remains unclear.
Right now I see no danger that bitfinext could go bankrupt. They have the money, they just can't move it at the moment.

What you have written sounds EXACTLY like what people were saying when MtGox started having problems with fiat withdrawals.

Be cautious and withdraw your coins. If it later turns out that things are fine at bitfinex and they enable withdrawals, then you can start using them again.

The crypto space is so shady that it is better to be safe than sorry (as the victims of mtgox, mintal, cryptsy and others will tell you).

I must admit that I was not around at Mt.Gox times. From all I know they had not much more than Bitcoin and fiat, did they?
At Bitfinex bitcoins and every other cryptocurrency seems to be intact, both in withdrawls and deposits.
So I still don't think that bitfinex is in danger. After all it's just a problem with payments in fiat money they have.
And even if (and that is a very big if) it might come to delays with a cryptocurrency, that would not have the same impact as Mt.Gox had.
Just remember the the Bitfinex hack last year. The influence it had on bitcoin price was measurable, but really not catastrophic.
But of course, if somebody feels uncomfortable with the situation, play the safe card.

[leon0207]

I think that is why eth and btc going up , every usdt in bitfinex changed to btc or eth and send another exchanges such as bittrex and poloniex.

[fathur.aza]

as long as there is no affect the price of bitcoin and sump they all do not realize it.

[Sniper44]

shouldn't bitfinex have backup accounts in other countries? why put the fate of all their business in one country's account. If this is their only account, then I mus say they have failed to plan.

they made an announcement on their site talking about these issues about 5 days ago and in that they mentioned something about their funds not being frozen but payment channels being closed.
and also they mentioned that "U.S. banks aren't holding any of their funds." so they should have more than just one bank.
they may have disabled everything to prevent further problems.
https://www.bitfinex.com/posts/199

what i find weird is why an exchange located in Hong Kong uses banks in Taiwan!

[severaldetails]

as long as there is no affect the price of bitcoin and sump they all do not realize it.

I think we already have an effect on bitcoin price. It went up during the last 24 hours.
People buy bitcoins with their fiat they have on bitfinex, because that way they can withdraw their money.
This increases the demand and the price goes up. And as long as the price goes up they do not sell.