Funds frozen on HUOBI (HTX - SCAM) for over a year, no explanation or resolution

[Artem_st]

I’ve been registered on the Huobi (HTX) cryptocurrency exchange since July 11, 2023. My account UID 455531811
Over time, I deposited significant amounts of money for trading and arbitrage. I’ve never had any issues with other major exchanges, but this time is different.

Since December 2023, my account has been restricted, and I cannot withdraw or even log in properly to manage my spot trades. Because of this, I’m unable to close positions or secure profits when prices move.

Huobi’s support repeatedly tells me the same thing:

“According to the security service, the restrictions on your account cannot be lifted temporarily. Unfortunately, we are unable to disclose the specific reason.”

I’ve been receiving that exact reply for over a year now.

During this period, I’ve completed multiple rounds of verification — including video checks with background changes and gestures (about 10 times). I also provided:
 • Transaction proofs for every deposit and withdrawal;
 • Bank statements and counterparties’ KYC;
 • Screenshots of all related conversations and transfers.

Despite submitting everything requested several times, the investigation never seems to move forward. There are no clear review deadlines, no updates, and no way to access my balance (around $500,000).

All transactions were legitimate private crypto deals, and I haven’t violated any HTX rules.
This situation has effectively locked my funds without explanation.

I’m sharing this to document my experience and see if anyone else has faced something similar with HTX. If the issue is resolved, I’ll update this post.

(Posting for transparency and community advice. This is not financial or legal advice.)

[Artem_st]

21/10/2025 - HUOBI IS A SCAM 
I urge all HTX users to WITHDRAW THEIR FUNDS AND NOT STORE THEM ON THIS EXCHANGE! Take care of yourself and your money!

[BitMaxz]

About this time's verification, did you do it in just one day?
It looks like you are spamming them with KYC verification.
Why don't you wait first for them to review your case and documents? 3 days or one week would be enough before telling them they are a scam.

By searching this exchange, it seems that they had very strict terms, and many people had similar cases posted here in the forum. Some of them are victims of phishing sites, so would you mind checking if you are using the right site?

[logfiles]

Looks like your account might have locked up with a pending investigation or one of those situation where law enforcement agencies with the help of court issue an order to freeze an account because of maybe the source of funds

Are you very certain the funds were obtained or bought from a genuine source?

Regardless, they should be able to tell you why your account was frozen.

[NotATether]

Looks like your account might have locked up with a pending investigation or one of those situation where law enforcement agencies with the help of court issue an order to freeze an account because of maybe the source of funds

Are you very certain the funds were obtained or bought from a genuine source?

Regardless, they should be able to tell you why your account was frozen.

Another possibility is that this is fraud disguised as regulation in order to help HTX and Justin Sun lower their deficit on the balance sheets.

He is known for this kind of shady behavior on his properties. In fact it is not clear why he is allowed to own and run two large exchanges at the same time (HTX and Poloniex).

[dkbit98]

Despite submitting everything requested several times, the investigation never seems to move forward. There are no clear review deadlines, no updates, and no way to access my balance (around $500,000).

With that much money stuck on your Huobi exchange account, I would seriously consider hiring a lawyer and filling a lawsuit against them.
There is chance they will get you more seriously after they get contacted by your official legal team.
Good luck if you decide to go that way.

PS
I hope you learned your lesson that you should never keep your coins on any centralized exchanges.
Not your keys, not your coins.

[Artem_st]

About this time's verification, did you do it in just one day?
It looks like you are spamming them with KYC verification.
Why don't you wait first for them to review your case and documents? 3 days or one week would be enough before telling them they are a scam.

By searching this exchange, it seems that they had very strict terms, and many people had similar cases posted here in the forum. Some of them are victims of phishing sites, so would you mind checking if you are using the right site?

Dear Sir, I'm not spamming them. This problem has been going on for more than a year, not a week. They keep asking me to record video selfies and other things once a month. The last time they even asked me about my tattoo. What do they care about my tattoos? I've already justified absolutely every movement of funds in my account, every payment. I provided absolutely every document they requested, and I've done everything in my power. Now they're responding to me like a template. For the last six months, I've been getting the following response: "The user's HTX account does not support unlocking for the time being, thank you." When I ask for a reason, they reply: "Unfortunately, we are unable to disclose a specific reason. Appreciated for your understanding."

Looks like your account might have locked up with a pending investigation or one of those situation where law enforcement agencies with the help of court issue an order to freeze an account because of maybe the source of funds

Are you very certain the funds were obtained or bought from a genuine source?

Regardless, they should be able to tell you why your account was frozen.

No one is rushing to explain the real reason for refusing to lift the restrictions. I received the cryptocurrency through an offline transaction with another person, and I provided all the seller's information, as well as all the evidence. There was no talk of any court action or law enforcement. Huobi is simply holding my money, refusing to explain why they want it.

Looks like your account might have locked up with a pending investigation or one of those situation where law enforcement agencies with the help of court issue an order to freeze an account because of maybe the source of funds

Are you very certain the funds were obtained or bought from a genuine source?

Regardless, they should be able to tell you why your account was frozen.

Another possibility is that this is fraud disguised as regulation in order to help HTX and Justin Sun lower their deficit on the balance sheets.

He is known for this kind of shady behavior on his properties. In fact it is not clear why he is allowed to own and run two large exchanges at the same time (HTX and Poloniex).

It's precisely because this looks like a scam that I created this thread. I want to warn people to withdraw their funds from this exchange and keep their wallets safe.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[Trêvoid]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5506545.new#new

Avoid Huobi/HTX.com!

Don’t support Justin Sun’s projects.. they’re all shady.

[FinneysTrueVision]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5506545.new#new

Avoid Huobi/HTX.com!

Don’t support Justin Sun’s projects.. they’re all shady.

Whenever Justin Sun is involved, it is almost never good news. Most of the Tether deposited on HTX gets lent out to third parties, and it is a similar case for other coins. Digging into some of their issues reveals even more problems, like the fact that most of the BTC they claim to have is actually just a tokenized version issued on Tron and for which there isn’t enough information to determine if it is fully backed by real Bitcoin.

At the very least, they should give a reason for why they decided to freeze your account instead of stonewalling with endless KYC requirements.

[Artem_st]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5506545.new#new

Avoid Huobi/HTX.com!

Don’t support Justin Sun’s projects.. they’re all shady.

Whenever Justin Sun is involved, it is almost never good news. Most of the Tether deposited on HTX gets lent out to third parties, and it is a similar case for other coins. Digging into some of their issues reveals even more problems, like the fact that most of the BTC they claim to have is actually just a tokenized version issued on Tron and for which there isn’t enough information to determine if it is fully backed by real Bitcoin.

At the very least, they should give a reason for why they decided to freeze your account instead of stonewalling with endless KYC requirements.

I'm disabled and blind in one eye. I'm scheduled for surgery, which is constantly being postponed because Huobi has frozen my account and is refusing to withdraw funds. You can't imagine how difficult it is to make a video selfie according to all of Huobi's requirements when you're in my situation. Sorry for being so honest. I have to resort to third parties to record videos according to their requirements. I plan to contact international media and seek justice. I will attach documents regarding the media transaction and a full history of my interactions with the exchange if my account isn't unblocked. I'm discussing this matter with international lawyers.
The full story in my case is as follows:
I tried to withdraw funds, but they refused. They asked for documents and a selfie. This was over a year ago. I provided everything, but they asked for documents for another transaction. They kept asking for this information for every transaction in my account, but I have nothing to hide, so I provided everything they asked for. After that, they asked me to wait a month and then contact them again. I waited, and a month later, they started asking for everything all over again, as if they had never contacted me before. I resubmitted everything more than five times. I took more than five video selfies (each time asking a friend for help so the videos looked good). When the exchange ran out of reasons to hold my funds, they simply started saying, "It is impossible to lift the restrictions." This is simply outrageous and terrible treatment of their clients.
HUOBI IS A SCAM
HTX IS A SCAM

[Artem_st]

I am attaching a screenshot of HUOBI(HTX) response, look how SHORT and TEMPLATED it is, I remind you that my balance is $500,000, I am a VIP client!
https://i.ibb.co/SDjWYps8/photo-2025-10-20-23-34-27.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/992YB35v/photo-2025-10-20-23-34-29.jpg
Don't use the HUOBI exchange until I update this thread that the issue has been resolved. Withdraw your funds from the Huobi exchange! Don't store your money on HUOBI!
Don't use the HTX exchange until I update this thread that the issue has been resolved. Withdraw your funds from the HTX exchange! Don't store your money on HTX!

[FinneysTrueVision]

I am attaching a screenshot of HUOBI(HTX) response, look how SHORT and TEMPLATED it is, I remind you that my balance is $500,000, I am a VIP client!


Don't use the HUOBI exchange until I update this thread that the issue has been resolved. Withdraw your funds from the Huobi exchange! Don't store your money on HUOBI!
Don't use the HTX exchange until I update this thread that the issue has been resolved. Withdraw your funds from the HTX exchange! Don't store your money on HTX!

Your screenshots suggest that you might be located in Russia, which is one of the countries restricted by HTX. https://www.htx.com/support/54954447731723

If the reason for the account freeze is related to this then they should say so. Holding someone’s money hostage is not the right thing to do. They can still remain compliant and allow you to withdraw up to a certain amount of crypto per day. As long as there isn’t a seizure order they can’t use sanctions as an excuse to deny customers, who were previously allowed to use the exchange, access to their funds.

[Artem_st]

I am attaching a screenshot of HUOBI(HTX) response, look how SHORT and TEMPLATED it is, I remind you that my balance is $500,000, I am a VIP client!
https://i.ibb.co/SDjWYps8/photo-2025-10-20-23-34-27.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/992YB35v/photo-2025-10-20-23-34-29.jpg
Don't use the HUOBI exchange until I update this thread that the issue has been resolved. Withdraw your funds from the Huobi exchange! Don't store your money on HUOBI!
Don't use the HTX exchange until I update this thread that the issue has been resolved. Withdraw your funds from the HTX exchange! Don't store your money on HTX!

Your screenshots suggest that you might be located in Russia, which is one of the countries restricted by HTX. https://www.htx.com/support/54954447731723

If the reason for the account freeze is related to this then they should say so. Holding someone’s money hostage is not the right thing to do. They can still remain compliant and allow you to withdraw up to a certain amount of crypto per day. As long as there isn’t a seizure order they can’t use sanctions as an excuse to deny customers, who were previously allowed to use the exchange, access to their funds.

Thank you so much for the advice, I'll write to support about this and see what they say! I'll leave a feedback message here.
But if the restrictions were related to this, they would have said so directly, but no, they simply tell me that the restrictions cannot be lifted without a specific reason. They're simply scammers...

[BitMaxz]

Dear Sir, I'm not spamming them. This problem has been going on for more than a year, not a week. They keep asking me to record video selfies and other things once a month. The last time they even asked me about my tattoo. What do they care about my tattoos? I've already justified absolutely every movement of funds in my account, every payment. I provided absolutely every document they requested, and I've done everything in my power. Now they're responding to me like a template. For the last six months, I've been getting the following response: "The user's HTX account does not support unlocking for the time being, thank you." When I ask for a reason, they reply: "Unfortunately, we are unable to disclose a specific reason. Appreciated for your understanding."

The response is from the bot, not from the real support.
That's a red flag if they're asking for a video of yourself, including your tattoo.
I never experience this on any exchanges; they only ask for KYC again if the date of my ID expired or once every year.

Like the above said, if you are living in Russia, then you are in a restricted country.
Why did you deposit to this exchange without reading the terms?

Let's hope they let your funds be unfrozen for withdrawal only, but the chances here are pretty small.

[Shishir99]

This case instantly reminded me of the other case, which was already posted by Trêvoid here. In that case, the user was unable to provide the proof of the source of funds because they mined it a long time ago. However, this case actually proves that even if a customer proves everything, including proof of funds, the scammers still allow the user to withdraw their funds. Half a million dollars is a considerable amount, and I cannot think of being in such a position.

I would suggest that the OP file a lawsuit. Before that, as another member pointed out, make sure you are not from their restricted region. Please check when they changed their rules and then talk to a lawyer if they can help you getting your funds back.

[FinneysTrueVision]

Like the above said, if you are living in Russia, then you are in a restricted country.
Why did you deposit to this exchange without reading the terms?

As we can see from their terms and conditions, which have not been updated since July 2023, Russia was not a restricted country when he signed up.
https://www.htx.com/support/360000298561

They only put out that notice saying that they were restricting certain countries in November of 2023, shortly before the user’s account became restricted. If you search online some sources say they accept Russian users, so it might not be a policy that is enforced very strictly.

[BitMaxz]

As we can see from their terms and conditions, which have not been updated since July 2023, Russia was not a restricted country when he signed up.
https://www.htx.com/support/360000298561

They only put out that notice saying that they were restricting certain countries in November of 2023, shortly before the user’s account became restricted. If you search online some sources say they accept Russian users, so it might not be a policy that is enforced very strictly.

I see.
So OP registered in July 2023, when Russia was not restricted yet, and then in November 2023, they released an article with a list of restricted countries, including Russia.

I got the list here: https://www.htx.com/support/54954447731723

The problem is that they do not allow customers to withdraw their funds because they were registered prior to the restriction.
Unlike Binance, they give customers living in restricted countries time to withdraw their funds.

This is an old scam tactic used by other exchanges. They made use of individual country jurisdiction.

[Artem_st]

Dear Sir, I'm not spamming them. This problem has been going on for more than a year, not a week. They keep asking me to record video selfies and other things once a month. The last time they even asked me about my tattoo. What do they care about my tattoos? I've already justified absolutely every movement of funds in my account, every payment. I provided absolutely every document they requested, and I've done everything in my power. Now they're responding to me like a template. For the last six months, I've been getting the following response: "The user's HTX account does not support unlocking for the time being, thank you." When I ask for a reason, they reply: "Unfortunately, we are unable to disclose a specific reason. Appreciated for your understanding."

The response is from the bot, not from the real support.
That's a red flag if they're asking for a video of yourself, including your tattoo.
I never experience this on any exchanges; they only ask for KYC again if the date of my ID expired or once every year.

Like the above said, if you are living in Russia, then you are in a restricted country.
Why did you deposit to this exchange without reading the terms?

Let's hope they let your funds be unfrozen for withdrawal only, but the chances here are pretty small.

Good evening! Regarding the restrictions imposed on the Russian Federation. I was registered on the exchange and made deposits even before the exchange officially announced it would stop supporting accounts from Russia.
I travel a lot around the world, and Russia isn't the only country I live in. And the fact that I was born here doesn't give the exchange the right to take my funds without justification.

[Artem_st]

This case instantly reminded me of the other case, which was already posted by Trêvoid here. In that case, the user was unable to provide the proof of the source of funds because they mined it a long time ago. However, this case actually proves that even if a customer proves everything, including proof of funds, the scammers still allow the user to withdraw their funds. Half a million dollars is a considerable amount, and I cannot think of being in such a position.

I would suggest that the OP file a lawsuit. Before that, as another member pointed out, make sure you are not from their restricted region. Please check when they changed their rules and then talk to a lawyer if they can help you getting your funds back.

I'd be happy to do this, but I have almost no experience with international lawyers. I'm working on this plan. There are several media outlets I'm negotiating with and preparing to provide materials. You're absolutely right, I've provided them with all the documents, and they're no longer asking me to justify any transactions. This means I've passed the AML check successfully, and they no longer have any reason to withhold my money. They just want to, and they're taking advantage of that.

[Artem_st]

Like the above said, if you are living in Russia, then you are in a restricted country.
Why did you deposit to this exchange without reading the terms?

As we can see from their terms and conditions, which have not been updated since July 2023, Russia was not a restricted country when he signed up.
https://www.htx.com/support/360000298561

They only put out that notice saying that they were restricting certain countries in November of 2023, shortly before the user’s account became restricted. If you search online some sources say they accept Russian users, so it might not be a policy that is enforced very strictly.

Sir, you're absolutely right about the date! And regarding the Policy, it's only being observed selectively. It's difficult for a Russian citizen to appeal to an international court to defend their position against the exchange due to the geopolitical situation. Huobi is a scam, unfortunately.