OKEx Suspends Withdrawls

[Bitcoin_bullish]

Cryptocurrency exchange OKEx suspended withdrawals after police investigation but it has given very little information about what is happening.
Three hours ago, the exchange published this announcement (link):

Dear valued customers,

One of our private key holders is currently cooperating with a public security bureau in investigations where required.   We have been out of touch with the concerned private key holder.  As such, the associated authorization could not be completed.  Pursuant to 8.1 Service Change and Interruption of the Terms of Service, OKEx may change the Service and/or may also interrupt, suspend or terminate the service at any time with or without prior notice. In order to act in the best interests of customers and deliver exceptional longtime customer service, we have decided to suspend digital assets/cryptocurrencies withdrawals as of [October 16, 2020 at 11:00 (Hong Kong Time)].  We assure that OKEx’s other functions remain normal and stable and the security of your assets at OKEx will not affected.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by the suspension of digital assets/cryptocurrencies withdrawals.  We will make public announcement in a timely manner on any important development of the matter.  We will resume digital assets/cryptocurrencies withdrawals immediately once the concerned private key holder is able to authorize the transaction.  We appreciate and value your continued support and trust and will continue to deliver first-class products, services and technical support to our customers.

Yours respectfully,

OKEx

Oct 16, 2020

OKex has not explained which government is behind this investigation, although most believe it was Chinese police or agents.

The explanation given in this announcement is that one person or entity is a private key holder that he/she is now cooperating with government agents.
Was this a multisig wallet? Is it that OKex hands the keys to one employee or partner? I don't understand a lot how one entity can have access to private keys and there is not a backup plan for cases like this.
So what happens if the Chinese or another government asks this holder to hand over the private keys?

The fact is that with centralized exchanges we have to trust these institutions that they will perform the actions we asked and not mess with our funds. After everything we have seen starting from the early exchanges until today, we should now be more careful and trust only ourselves. Bitcoin is not about exchanges but freedom of transactions and does not require a third party to run.

A complete list of why we should not trust our Bitcoin with exchanges is on this link.

Hold your keys to own your Bitcoin.

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[Fatemablabla]

So this was the current reason for a sudden 300$ drop for BTC. I hope this investigation ends today and they resume the withdraw from today. So, the market recover fast. Hope there will be no negative news after the investigation ends. Otherwise the market will be fall badly I think.

[pooya87]

what are you talking about?
for the past 6 days bitcoin price has been going up and down from $11100 to $11700 and back multiple times. doing the same thing which is also within the range of <5%-10% doesn't need any reason. it is simply the daily market fluctuations.
there is no denying that there are always some newbies who panic sell whenever they read any kind of slightly negative news but still when the price change is tiny, it doesn't need a reason.

[Bitcoin_bullish]

what are you talking about?

This drop was connected as it happened exactly when OKex halted withdrawals and as you said some noobs panicked. I think that you mistaken my intention on what I discuss here. I posted this because it is another reason why we should not trust exchanges and this is clear from the post. I don't have any reason to support OKex or other exchanges, I saw that nobody wrote about this so I gave my opinion.

[Edit] I will remove the price information from the title after reconsidering. I'm not a trader and I don't think that anything that happens to OKex can influence the long term potential of Bitcoin.

[Bttzed03]

There's probably another case of money laundering or something that's unrelated to OKex operation. What's weird though is that the other private key holder went dark on OKex.

One of our private key holders is currently cooperating with a public security bureau in investigations where required.

"Cooperating" is a nice way to put it but I'm guessing he was arrested somewhere and just informed the office of what happened.

Another case that reminded of that member who said keeping funds on top exchanges is better than keeping it in your wallet because they earn rewards 

[dkbit98]

They just announced that Okex founder Star Xu was arrested by police, but we are still waiting for confirmation of this news.
One thing is sure, withdrawals are still disabled and not working.
Original source information article:
http://finance.caixin.com/2020-10-16/101615507.html

His social media Weibo profile is also gone


https://twitter.com/BoxminingNews/status/1317022633762852864

[dunfida]

what are you talking about?
for the past 6 days bitcoin price has been going up and down from $11100 to $11700 and back multiple times. doing the same thing which is also within the range of <5%-10% doesn't need any reason. it is simply the daily market fluctuations.
there is no denying that there are always some newbies who panic sell whenever they read any kind of slightly negative news but still when the price change is tiny, it doesn't need a reason.

People do really easily panic when they do really read up on these kind of events which isnt something new specially if exchangers do have current issues which in result to hold up withdrawals.
For now theres nothing we can do but to wait up on the word on whats the actual reason and just hope that it will not be an another exchange to close its doors due to severe issue.
As expected where known or big exchange platforms are always prone when government does have a vacant time on investigating things up. 

[btc_angela]

They just announced that Okex founder Star Xu was arrested by police, but we are still waiting for confirmation of this news.
One thing is sure, withdrawals are still disabled and not working.
Original source information article:
http://finance.caixin.com/2020-10-16/101615507.html

His social media Weibo profile is also gone

Not the first time though that Star Xu was arrested on being questions by police, OKCoin’s Star Xu Questioned as Police Investigate Bitcoin Futures Allegations, this was two years ago. So let's see how this drama will turn out, as it has affected the market already with some minor dip.

[Bitcoin_bullish]

Another case that reminded of that member who said keeping funds on top exchanges is better than keeping it in your wallet because they earn rewards  

Exactly

There's probably another case of money laundering or something that's unrelated to OKex operation. What's weird though is that the other private key holder went dark on OKex.

One of our private key holders is currently cooperating with a public security bureau in investigations where required.

"Cooperating" is a nice way to put it but I'm guessing he was arrested somewhere and just informed the office of what happened.

It seems you were correct. Latest news report that Mingxing "Star" Xu the founder of OKex and a senior executive, is under investigation, maybe arrested already:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/okex-founder-reportedly-under-investigation-as-exchange-suspends-withdrawals

[avikz]

what are you talking about?

This drop was connected as it happened exactly when OKex halted withdrawals and as you said some noobs panicked. I think that you mistaken my intention on what I discuss here. I posted this because it is another reason why we should not trust exchanges and this is clear from the post. I don't have any reason to support OKex or other exchanges, I saw that nobody wrote about this so I gave my opinion.

[Edit] I will remove the price information from the title after reconsidering. I'm not a trader and I don't think that anything that happens to OKex can influence the long term potential of Bitcoin.

The price declined is probably resulted by the panic from Okex matter! But it's not important at this point! What I know Okex is a Hong Kong based company so it is easy to assume that Chinese government is behind all these!

What surprises me is that all big Asian exchanges are being attacked by the enforcement agencies. Few weeks back we had Similar type of new came from South Korea and now from Hong Kong. They are becoming very soft target for the enforcement agencies. If they can't prove anything, thy can just charge the exchanges with money laundering. That's easy!

[gentlemand]

Didn't Mr Xu keep everyone's private keys in his girlfriend's grandmother's cupboard? And he had his employees trading on Okex's previous incarnation to keep the illusion up. And if I remember rightly he was 'investing' customer funds in crappy investment schemes, or maybe that was Huobi.

Lepoards and spots and all that.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

But the question, is the arrest crypto related on not? And as a security precautions, OKeX suspends everything until everything is clear. I can't remember, bu it seems there was a exchanges that was raided up by the Chinese authority recently, is this connected or not? But the damage has been done, it has impacted the market already as there was a wild price swing after this news surfaces.

Edit: it was Gate.io and not OKeX.

[cr1776]

Who designed their system to require ALL multi-signature keys to sign instead of a majority?  Talk about one of the stupidest decisions I've read about this year.  

Suppose one got hit by a car, are all of OKEx's funds lost?

Or is this just an exit scam? 

Remember the rule:  if you aren't trading, don't leave bitcoins on an exchange, you don't own them, you are just a creditor.

[Akiko]

They just announced that Okex founder Star Xu was arrested by police, but we are still waiting for confirmation of this news.
One thing is sure, withdrawals are still disabled and not working.
Original source information article:
http://finance.caixin.com/2020-10-16/101615507.html

His social media Weibo profile is also gone


https://twitter.com/BoxminingNews/status/1317022633762852864

Its looks like another exit scam of an exchange .hopefully not,  How come his been arrested but still have time to disable the account . something fishy with that if that was  true you don't need to disable one of your social media  accounr this is another way to contact you personally by the people know you . not unless you are hiding something that you don't want to get caught.

[Bttzed03]

~
Its looks like another exit scam of an exchange .hopefully not,  How come his been arrested but still have time to disable the account . something fishy with that if that was  true you don't need to disable one of your social media  accounr this is another way to contact you personally by the people know you . not unless you are hiding something that you don't want to get caught.

I doubt it's an attempt to exit scam. The scenario would have been the private key holder/s running away with the funds which forces the shut down of the exchange, the customers filing a class suit, then police officers going after them.

About the deletion of account, there's probably a hired PR that handles his social media. It was probably done to hide incriminating evidences.


Another tweet that supports the money laundering angle

#okex first stated withdrawal will be suspended 15PM but quickly changed to 11AM. Rumor has it that over 800 accs in "certain" exchange are involved with cross-border money laundering

^ Comes with photos but the letters are in Korean or Chinese (I don't know). Visit the tweet if you can understand it.

[Lucius]

Who designed their system to require ALL multi-signature keys to sign instead of a majority?  Talk about one of the stupidest decisions I've read about this year.  
Suppose one got hit by a car, are all of OKEx's funds lost?
Or is this just an exit scam? 

I think Star Xu is just one of those who has control over private keys, but the exchange may have been ordered to suspend business until further notice - I don’t believe anyone would be so stupid as to allow what happened to Quadriga exchange when one man is allegedly taken with him to the grave around $200 million of user funds.

Human stupidity is unfortunately endless, but I don’t believe that’s the case here - I would put this in the category of classic pressure from the Chinese authorities on what is illegal in Chinese territory, and we all know that Hong Kong is still playing under some of its rules that China disapproves.

[arwin100]

They just announced that Okex founder Star Xu was arrested by police, but we are still waiting for confirmation of this news.
One thing is sure, withdrawals are still disabled and not working.
Original source information article:
http://finance.caixin.com/2020-10-16/101615507.html

His social media Weibo profile is also gone


https://twitter.com/BoxminingNews/status/1317022633762852864

Its looks like another exit scam of an exchange .hopefully not,  How come his been arrested but still have time to disable the account . something fishy with that if that was  true you don't need to disable one of your social media  accounr this is another way to contact you personally by the people know you . not unless you are hiding something that you don't want to get caught.

okex is a big exchange and until there's no incident of running or their representative didn't answer anymore the questions of their worried users then we cannot call them scam.

For now the only thing we need to do is to monitor the latest updates to see on what will happen unto them and hopefully they will be back on operation after that incident resolve.

[rollingdice]

That's why it's really important to consider where you will store your coins before investing in crypto. "Not your keys, not your coins" is like a bitcoiners' mantra nowadays.

[gentlemand]

That's why it's really important to consider where you will store your coins before investing in crypto. "Not your keys, not your coins" is like a bitcoiners' mantra nowadays.

There's been red lights since they came to prominence however many years ago it was. Memories seem short as ever. I never quite figured out how they moved beyond their volume bot zero free days so smoothly.

Hopefully it's cleared up rapidly but it should be a reminder to its users.

[bartolo]

Who designed their system to require ALL multi-signature keys to sign instead of a majority?  Talk about one of the stupidest decisions I've read about this year.  

Suppose one got hit by a car, are all of OKEx's funds lost?

I guess they have already imagined that scenario, those keys are not in that person's head, they must be stored somewhere, in some device or a paper or whatever. They must have something planned, if not, their customers can be in a dangerous situation.