Official CaVirtex.com Thread

[IronWhisker]

If CAVirtex is truly a legitimate operation, then CAVirtex needs to perform the following actions :

1. Send out an email to all clients informing them about the planned closure.  It's not acceptable to simply post a message on your website or twitter.    You need to make reasonable efforts to communicate this major event.   This should take about 2 minutes (literally) to implement an email broadcast to all clients ...

2. Communicate a plan of how/if/when CAVirtex will re-enable BTC/LTC withdrawals.   While CAVirtex indicates that disablement of withdrawals is "temporary" there's no indication of when BTC/LTC withdrawal will be re-enabled.

3. Communicate a plan of how CAVirtex will return BTC/LTC funds to clients.   While CAVirtex indicates BTC/LTC funds will be returned to the address provided in the user preferences, there's no mention of when, or how BTC/LTC funds can be transferred.

4. Communicate a plan of how CAVirtex will return CDN funds to clients.   While CAVirtex indicates that disablement of withdrawals is temporary, and that CAVirtex will "communicate" with clients that hold balances after March 25th, there is no explicit statement of how/when/if CDN funds will be returned.  Also what happens if clients are not even "verified" yet ... I suspect folks will have a hard time giving you ID documents given the current situation.

5.  Elaborate what happens after March 25th.  Statements made by CAVirtex are very open ended and do not articulate what happens after March 25th for remaining balances.  I don't think it give us the warm-fuzzy's that CAVirtex will communicate with us after March 25th ...

If CAVirtex is "solvent" and has maintained 100% reserves to payout client balances it should have nothing to hide at this point.
Please communicate a detailed plan, and provide regular updates if parts of this plan are "to-be-determined" (like reactivating withdrawals for example!).   

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[dunand]

Great post IronWhisker.

[explorer]

With the sale going on right now,  there shouldn't be any CAD  balances left to withdraw 

[adaseb]

If CAVirtex is truly a legitimate operation, then CAVirtex needs to perform the following actions :

1. Send out an email to all clients informing them about the planned closure.  It's not acceptable to simply post a message on your website or twitter.    You need to make reasonable efforts to communicate this major event.   This should take about 2 minutes (literally) to implement an email broadcast to all clients ...

2. Communicate a plan of how/if/when CAVirtex will re-enable BTC/LTC withdrawals.   While CAVirtex indicates that disablement of withdrawals is "temporary" there's no indication of when BTC/LTC withdrawal will be re-enabled.

3. Communicate a plan of how CAVirtex will return BTC/LTC funds to clients.   While CAVirtex indicates BTC/LTC funds will be returned to the address provided in the user preferences, there's no mention of when, or how BTC/LTC funds can be transferred.

4. Communicate a plan of how CAVirtex will return CDN funds to clients.   While CAVirtex indicates that disablement of withdrawals is temporary, and that CAVirtex will "communicate" with clients that hold balances after March 25th, there is no explicit statement of how/when/if CDN funds will be returned.  Also what happens if clients are not even "verified" yet ... I suspect folks will have a hard time giving you ID documents given the current situation.

5.  Elaborate what happens after March 25th.  Statements made by CAVirtex are very open ended and do not articulate what happens after March 25th for remaining balances.  I don't think it give us the warm-fuzzy's that CAVirtex will communicate with us after March 25th ...

If CAVirtex is "solvent" and has maintained 100% reserves to payout client balances it should have nothing to hide at this point.
Please communicate a detailed plan, and provide regular updates if parts of this plan are "to-be-determined" (like reactivating withdrawals for example!).   

Yes I agree with you. Why didn't they send out a mass email.

[nubbins]

Yes I agree with you. Why didn't they send out a mass email.

Because they're a bunch of fuck-ups, just like the crowd who "sold" Havelock.

Why didn't they ever -- EVER -- fix the calculator on the buy/sell page?

Why didn't they realize their DB was stolen last year when we all started getting .jar emails?

Actual criminal levels of negligence. Seriously considering opening another class-action against these guys, and another against the original Havelock owners.

[spazzdla]

Yes I agree with you. Why didn't they send out a mass email.

Because they're a bunch of fuck-ups, just like the crowd who "sold" Havelock.

Why didn't they ever -- EVER -- fix the calculator on the buy/sell page?

Why didn't they realize their DB was stolen last year when we all started getting .jar emails?

Actual criminal levels of negligence. Seriously considering opening another class-action against these guys, and another against the original Havelock owners.

This right here is probably why the closed down(not trying to rip on you just saying many of us are intense).. minimul profit and the most vicious people on the planet to deal with lol. We are a vicious bunch lol.  Although we need to be half the blood people out there are frauds.

They have stopped withdraws eh... that is bad bad news :S.  VOS never stopped withdraws :S..  I forsure see why you are considering a lawsuit :S.. Perhaps a week to let them move the coins out of cold storage if that is the issue..?

[nubbins]

This right here is probably why the closed down(not trying to rip on you just saying many of us are intense).. minimul profit and the most vicious people on the planet to deal with lol. We are a vicious bunch lol.  Although we need to be half the blood people out there are frauds.

They have stopped withdraws eh... that is bad bad news :S.  VOS never stopped withdraws :S..  I forsure see why you are considering a lawsuit :S.. Perhaps a week to let them move the coins out of cold storage if that is the issue..?

You think someone is shutting down a Free Money Machine because a couple of people on the forums are complaining?

Scroll up and read Havelock's latest replies in this thread, and then tell me they're shutting down because of feelings.

INCOMING AND OUTGOING:
Monthly trading fees: $30,000
Monthly expenses:

Yep, they're definitely making minimal profit...  

[Bimmerhead]

INCOMING AND OUTGOING:
Monthly trading fees: $30,000
Monthly expenses:

Yep, they're definitely making minimal profit...  

If they're only taking in $30k a month in fees than I would think they are not even making minimal profit.

They probably have a dozen employees.  If they pay them an average of $2,500/month ($30,000/year) then they're at breakeven on wages alone, never mind rent, utilities etc.

And they're in Calgary, so they're probably paying more than $2,500/month.

They would need to raise their fees or increase their trade volume just to survive. Makes more sense to buy bitcoin and sit around waiting for the price to go up.

[spazzdla]

This right here is probably why the closed down(not trying to rip on you just saying many of us are intense).. minimul profit and the most vicious people on the planet to deal with lol. We are a vicious bunch lol.  Although we need to be half the blood people out there are frauds.

They have stopped withdraws eh... that is bad bad news :S.  VOS never stopped withdraws :S..  I forsure see why you are considering a lawsuit :S.. Perhaps a week to let them move the coins out of cold storage if that is the issue..?

You think someone is shutting down a Free Money Machine because a couple of people on the forums are complaining?

Scroll up and read Havelock's latest replies in this thread, and then tell me they're shutting down because of feelings.

INCOMING AND OUTGOING:
Monthly trading fees: $30,000
Monthly expenses:

Yep, they're definitely making minimal profit...  

How many employees do they have..  $360k a year.. / 10 =  36K a year..

I didn't mean the forums I ment more so bitcoiners.  Just by nature we are very specific.

[Bobsurplus]

This right here is probably why the closed down(not trying to rip on you just saying many of us are intense).. minimul profit and the most vicious people on the planet to deal with lol. We are a vicious bunch lol.  Although we need to be half the blood people out there are frauds.

They have stopped withdraws eh... that is bad bad news :S.  VOS never stopped withdraws :S..  I forsure see why you are considering a lawsuit :S.. Perhaps a week to let them move the coins out of cold storage if that is the issue..?

You think someone is shutting down a Free Money Machine because a couple of people on the forums are complaining?

Scroll up and read Havelock's latest replies in this thread, and then tell me they're shutting down because of feelings.

INCOMING AND OUTGOING:
Monthly trading fees: $30,000
Monthly expenses:

Yep, they're definitely making minimal profit...  

Cavirtex has been in the negative over 100K a month for the last little while. That could have something to do with why they are closing their doors. FYI.

[bittydude]

This right here is probably why the closed down(not trying to rip on you just saying many of us are intense).. minimul profit and the most vicious people on the planet to deal with lol. We are a vicious bunch lol.  Although we need to be half the blood people out there are frauds.

They have stopped withdraws eh... that is bad bad news :S.  VOS never stopped withdraws :S..  I forsure see why you are considering a lawsuit :S.. Perhaps a week to let them move the coins out of cold storage if that is the issue..?

You think someone is shutting down a Free Money Machine because a couple of people on the forums are complaining?

Scroll up and read Havelock's latest replies in this thread, and then tell me they're shutting down because of feelings.

INCOMING AND OUTGOING:
Monthly trading fees: $30,000
Monthly expenses:

Yep, they're definitely making minimal profit...  

Cavirtex has been in the negative over 100K a month for the last little while. That could have something to do with why they are closing their doors. FYI.

Obvisouly not public information but can you say for certain its credible information?

[klondike_bar]

INCOMING AND OUTGOING:
Monthly trading fees: $30,000
Monthly expenses:

Yep, they're definitely making minimal profit...  

If they're only taking in $30k a month in fees than I would think they are not even making minimal profit.

They probably have a dozen employees.  If they pay them an average of $2,500/month ($30,000/year) then they're at breakeven on wages alone, never mind rent, utilities etc.

And they're in Calgary, so they're probably paying more than $2,500/month.

They would need to raise their fees or increase their trade volume just to survive. Makes more sense to buy bitcoin and sit around waiting for the price to go up.

seems unlikely they would need 12 people on the team. maybe when they built the site they needed a few dev and security guys, but with the exchange in operation it could be upkept by 2-3 guys with enough technical skills. maybe 4-5 people depending how the ATMs are handled

do they even have a physical office? I don't see any sort of location listed on the website. re: utilities, theres likely $10,000 worth of server gear that costs <$800/month to host somewhere

realistically:
5 employees x $3k/month = $15k/month
putting 5%/month towards recouping upfront costs = ~$5k/month
paying to host webservers and phonelines = ~$1k/month
business insurance (i imagine they have some form of coverage for hot/cold wallet theft) = $5k/month (just a guess based on 30k worth of trade fees)

thats a total of $20-30k/month, so while i doubt they were operating at a loss, the margins may be a little thin. *granted, there would still be 5 people making a decent salary*

[explorer]

INCOMING AND OUTGOING:
Monthly trading fees: $30,000
Monthly expenses:

Yep, they're definitely making minimal profit...  

If they're only taking in $30k a month in fees than I would think they are not even making minimal profit.

They probably have a dozen employees.  If they pay them an average of $2,500/month ($30,000/year) then they're at breakeven on wages alone, never mind rent, utilities etc.

And they're in Calgary, so they're probably paying more than $2,500/month.

They would need to raise their fees or increase their trade volume just to survive. Makes more sense to buy bitcoin and sit around waiting for the price to go up.

seems unlikely they would need 12 people on the team. maybe when they built the site they needed a few dev and security guys, but with the exchange in operation it could be upkept by 2-3 guys with enough technical skills. maybe 4-5 people depending how the ATMs are handled

do they even have a physical office? I don't see any sort of location listed on the website. re: utilities, theres likely $10,000 worth of server gear that costs <$800/month to host somewhere

realistically:
5 employees x $3k/month = $15k/month
putting 5%/month towards recouping upfront costs = ~$5k/month
paying to host webservers and phonelines = ~$1k/month
business insurance (i imagine they have some form of coverage for hot/cold wallet theft) = $5k/month (just a guess based on 30k worth of trade fees)

thats a total of $20-30k/month, so while i doubt they were operating at a loss, the margins may be a little thin. *granted, there would still be 5 people making a decent salary*

Calgary, 3k/mo, decent salary.  Does.not.compute.

[freedomno1]

Feb. 19, 2015, 4:39 p.m. - Update on withdrawals

Since announcing our intention to shut down we have received an incredible amount of positive feedback from our users, partners, and community members, and we would like to say thank you for your kind feedback and years of patronage.

For clients looking to withdraw CAD we are experiencing delays due to the volume of withdrawals. Due to payment provider limitations, we currently cannot process direct deposits in excess of $150,000 per day. Given the current withdrawal requests we expect withdrawals to take at least 5 days longer than usual. We appreciate your patience.

Bitcoin and Litecoin withdrawals will begin soon. Again, we are concerned over the safety of your funds, so we want to be extremely careful confirming that the user withdrawing is actually the owner of the account. We assure you that we want to return funds as much as you want to withdraw them.

Please inform us immediately if you get a browser confirmation email from us that you did not initiate. For those of you who have not changed your passwords, please do so. Please fill out your return addresses under settings > user preferences.

[BitcoinBrains]

INCOMING AND OUTGOING:
Monthly trading fees: $30,000
Monthly expenses:

Yep, they're definitely making minimal profit...  

If they're only taking in $30k a month in fees than I would think they are not even making minimal profit.

They probably have a dozen employees.  If they pay them an average of $2,500/month ($30,000/year) then they're at breakeven on wages alone, never mind rent, utilities etc.

And they're in Calgary, so they're probably paying more than $2,500/month.

They would need to raise their fees or increase their trade volume just to survive. Makes more sense to buy bitcoin and sit around waiting for the price to go up.

seems unlikely they would need 12 people on the team. maybe when they built the site they needed a few dev and security guys, but with the exchange in operation it could be upkept by 2-3 guys with enough technical skills. maybe 4-5 people depending how the ATMs are handled

do they even have a physical office? I don't see any sort of location listed on the website. re: utilities, theres likely $10,000 worth of server gear that costs <$800/month to host somewhere

realistically:
5 employees x $3k/month = $15k/month
putting 5%/month towards recouping upfront costs = ~$5k/month
paying to host webservers and phonelines = ~$1k/month
business insurance (i imagine they have some form of coverage for hot/cold wallet theft) = $5k/month (just a guess based on 30k worth of trade fees)

thats a total of $20-30k/month, so while i doubt they were operating at a loss, the margins may be a little thin. *granted, there would still be 5 people making a decent salary*

Some important points:
They have more than 5 employees. They scaled back significantly a few months back but they still have more than that.
Their employees are spread out around the country.
They have no office to pay for.
Their servers are likely to cost way more than 1k/month.
No real insurance policy will insure bitcoin deposits at this point.

[freedomno1]

Since it was mentioned they use virtual offices, the one on the IPO document was for a Calgary location if I remember correctly.

VirtEx is a company that is all about the new economy made possible through the Internet. As such, VirtEx does not lease expensive office space in a downtown office tower.

VirtEx operates a virtual office, so yes, people work from home in different cities across the country - Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver. Not only is it less expensive and more productive, having employees located across the country allows VirtEx to take advantage of different time zones so we can better serve our customers and business partners.

The use of aliases by frontline customer service agents is utilized as a security measure to protect both VirtEx employees and customers. As is abundantly clear by recent news events, there are a lot of unsavory characters lurking in the Bitcoin space.

By the way, it should be noted, the use of aliases by frontline customer service agents comes as no surprise to successful, long established clients and business partners.

It should also be noted that we are a licensed Money Service Business by FINTRAC. Getting this license required extensive due diligence and ongoing transparency.

Reed Holmes
Business Development Manager

[Bobsurplus]

This right here is probably why the closed down(not trying to rip on you just saying many of us are intense).. minimul profit and the most vicious people on the planet to deal with lol. We are a vicious bunch lol.  Although we need to be half the blood people out there are frauds.

They have stopped withdraws eh... that is bad bad news :S.  VOS never stopped withdraws :S..  I forsure see why you are considering a lawsuit :S.. Perhaps a week to let them move the coins out of cold storage if that is the issue..?

You think someone is shutting down a Free Money Machine because a couple of people on the forums are complaining?

Scroll up and read Havelock's latest replies in this thread, and then tell me they're shutting down because of feelings.

INCOMING AND OUTGOING:
Monthly trading fees: $30,000
Monthly expenses:

Yep, they're definitely making minimal profit...  

Cavirtex has been in the negative over 100K a month for the last little while. That could have something to do with why they are closing their doors. FYI.

Obvisouly not public information but can you say for certain its credible information?

It's true.. The information is credible and accurate. I dont think it's even been a secret.
And as much as I hated these guys, I've still been using them and have made a few connections there. It's sad really but you cant keep losing money and keep the doors open.

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

This right here is probably why the closed down(not trying to rip on you just saying many of us are intense).. minimul profit and the most vicious people on the planet to deal with lol. We are a vicious bunch lol.  Although we need to be half the blood people out there are frauds.

They have stopped withdraws eh... that is bad bad news :S.  VOS never stopped withdraws :S..  I forsure see why you are considering a lawsuit :S.. Perhaps a week to let them move the coins out of cold storage if that is the issue..?

You think someone is shutting down a Free Money Machine because a couple of people on the forums are complaining?

Scroll up and read Havelock's latest replies in this thread, and then tell me they're shutting down because of feelings.

INCOMING AND OUTGOING:
Monthly trading fees: $30,000
Monthly expenses:

Yep, they're definitely making minimal profit...  

Cavirtex has been in the negative over 100K a month for the last little while. That could have something to do with why they are closing their doors. FYI.

Obvisouly not public information but can you say for certain its credible information?

It's true.. The information is credible and accurate. I dont think it's even been a secret.
And as much as I hated these guys, I've still been using them and have made a few connections there. It's sad really but you cant keep losing money and keep the doors open.

It's news to me.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Not that this thread is maintained in anyway
Seeing as Cavirtex hasn't logged in for months but since the weekend is over any rough ideas on when withdraws and bank transfers will be re-enabled
Think money transfer still works but is delayed no eta to my knowledge on re-enabling Bitcoin withdrawals

[troleybüs]

Sorry to hear that you shut down your website. My Canadian friends was using it since its opening. Now they have to switch other untrusted exchanges.