Bitforex.com goes offline after 55 million withdrawal

[OmegaStarScream]

They stopped processing withdrawals a couple of days ago. Today, the site is down[1] and if you visit the site, you will be welcomed by a Cloudflare page saying:

https://www.bitforex.com/

Code:

Sorry, you have been blocked
You are unable to access bitforex.com

There is no information from then on their social media, the last tweet was on the 21st of February.

[1] https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/02/26/bitforex-website-goes-dark-amid-reported-57m-outflow/

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[dkbit98]

They stopped processing withdrawals a couple of days ago. Today, the site is down[1] and if you visit the site, you will be welcomed by a Cloudflare page saying

It looks like there is something bigger happening with this exchange as their CEO stepped down in January, maybe it was hack or possible exit scam connected with this 57 million.
Interesting to see Bitforex support page is still working fine (for now):
https://support.bitforex.com/

[OmegaStarScream]

Interesting to see Bitforex support page is still working fine:
https://support.bitforex.com/

Support pages are usually separate and hosted elsewhere with Zendesk or some other similar services. That's probably why it's still up.

I'm not sure if it could be related to the old CEO though. I don't see why would he still have access to the hot wallets, after stepping down unless there was some backdoor he was aware of.

[BitMaxz]

Support pages are usually separate and hosted elsewhere with Zendesk or some other similar services. That's probably why it's still up.

I'm not sure if it could be related to the old CEO though. I don't see why would he still have access to the hot wallets, after stepping down unless there was some backdoor he was aware of.

I think the site is not hacked or related since the other pages are accessible like the one hosted in Zendesk. If the Bitforex cPanel was hacked then the hacker will modify it and remove Cloudflare from where it is hosted.

I think it is due to the recent issue on Cloudflare here https://www.cloudflarestatus.com/
There might be some changes going on in Cloudflare that affect Bitforex which is why the site is inaccessible?

[OmegaStarScream]

I think the site is not hacked or related since the other pages are accessible like the one hosted in Zendesk. If the Bitforex cPanel was hacked then the hacker will modify it and remove Cloudflare from where it is hosted.

I think it is due to the recent issue on Cloudflare here https://www.cloudflarestatus.com/
There might be some changes going on in Cloudflare that affect Bitforex which is why the site is inaccessible.

That's possible but I highly doubt it because the withdrawals stopped before the site was taken down.

They could've also tweeted something about it now that pretty much every crypto news site is talking about the incident, but they didn't. As I have mentioned, nothing since the 21st of the month.

[Potato Chips]

Has the alleged previous CEO gone completely silent as well? what about the new team or CEO, were they announced publicly? -- tried looking these up and nothing.

As it stands, it's lookin' like an exit scam with all the ghosting and halted withdrawals. Anecdotes like this also does not help:



The stepping down announcement from 'previous CEO' has only been almost a month as well so I'm not closing the possibility that it's all a facade.

[BitMaxz]

I tried to check the Bitforex telegram group but they blocked all members from posting or messaging on the group.

I found something on Google and according to him, there were 1.5m worth of withdrawals from different Bitforex hot wallets to a single address look at the image below.



It seems they take down the site and run the customer's funds.

[examplens]

When we see things like this, we're never sure if it's really a hack or an exit scam.
I don't know much about this exchange, but it is interesting that the CEO left a month ago. It would be too much if it was a coincidence. https://support.bitforex.com/hc/en-us/articles/28260960127385-Jason-Stepped-Down-as-CEO-of-BitForex

Seeing some suspicious activity with the crypto exchange
@bitforexcom
.

On Feb 23 their hot wallets saw outflows of ~$56.5M. Shortly after this time withdrawals stopped processing with no official announcements having been made since.

Currently users are asking questions on X/Telegram trying to get a response from the team. Interestingly one month ago their CEO stepped down.

Bitforex holds 18% of the $TRB supply and 7% of the $OMI supply.

Wallets to monitor:
0xdcacd7eb6692b816b6957f8898c1c4b63d1fc01f
3DbbF7yxCR7ni94ANrRkfV12rJoxrmo1o2
TQcnqaU4NDTR86eA4FZneeKfJMiQi7i76o

https://twitter.com/zachxbt/status/1762028433574650347

[yhiaali3]

No official comment yet from BitForex, I logged into their official account on the X platform and there has been no tweet since February 21st. All the news that comes from the Internet or social media is so far vague about exactly what happened.

This is really weird why don't they at least tell people what happened? Also, what happens to the assets of users who lose access to their accounts? Is their money lost forever? How will the authorities act on this issue? Many questions but no answers yet.

[JeromeTash]

Definitely an exit scam. I always had a bad feeling about that exchange especially for the fact that they would just list even scam tokens without caring. An exchange can just shut down without any update from the team about what is going on

Funny enough is that their token (Bitforex token) just pumped by almost 300% today on yobit. This people joke too much 

[coolcoinz]

Some more news:

Further allegations emerged in a report by digital assets data provider Kaiko on February 9, indicating that BitForex had the highest number of pairs with outsized volumes relative to their depth.
This raised suspicions of potential wash trading, a manipulative practice to create artificial trading volume

Notably, BitForex’s reported volumes did not align with trends seen on other exchanges, and irregular volume patterns were observed for Polkadot (DOT) and LTC markets.
Additionally, BitForex’s claim of higher volumes compared to major exchanges like Coinbase was contradicted by significantly lower web traffic, casting doubt on the veracity of their volume claims.

Another red flag raised in the analysis was the presence of high spreads on the exchange, which indicated thinly traded and illiquid markets, according to Kaiko.

As the situation unfolds, the crypto community awaits official statements from executives regarding the $57 million outflow and the offline website. The allegations of wash trading and suspicious volume patterns add to the exchange’s credibility concerns.

https://bitcoinist.com/500k-in-crypto-vanished-man-allegedly-disappears/

Bitforex team:
-F that, they got us, it's getting hot and the price is going up, let's grab what we can and run.

Why did the CEO quit? Probably knew he's going to be in jail like SBF so he disappeared before the bankruptcy, but I don't think that a month head start will save him from prosecution. He knew what was going on and did not come clean for the sake of his clients. In this industry you have to read between the lines because nobody will tell you what's really going on.