Bitstamp Warning

[wetsuit]

So, I have been a long time user of Bitstamp and buy a fairly large amount of coins from them each month. This time around though, after I sent them a SEPA deposit of 5,000 EUR, I was hit with this message.

We received your deposit transfer. However, as it meets some of our volume and frequency thresholds, we kindly ask you to please help us better understand the nature of your relationship with Bitstamp.

In order to do so, we are starting this additional KYC (know your customer) procedure which we must successfully complete before we can proceed with the processing of your transfer.

We kindly ask you to please answer the following KYC questionnaire:

1. How did you learn about Bitcoin?
2. What is the purpose of your trading on Bitstamp? Please describe in as much detail as possible how you intend to use your trading account.
3. Which banks are you intend to use? Please provide the complete addresses and SWIFT codes.
4. Estimated amount that you would be depositing/withdrawing to/from your Bitstamp account per month (in USD and BTC)?
5. What type of trading will you conduct? Buying/selling/both? Estimated trade volume per month?
6. What is the source of the funds which you have so far deposited to your Bitstamp account? Please provide any financial documentation which can confirm how the funds sent to your Bitstamp account were acquired.

If you have any questions in the meantime, please feel free to ask.

So, basically they are holding my money hostage unless I answer their extremely stupid and irrelevant questions. I find this to be highly unethical. If I had reached some threshold, why could they not send me these questions once I had hit it instead of sending it after I send them a deposit ?

I have sent them answers to their dumb questions but I shall be taking my business elsewhere in the future (Kraken by the looks of it).

I have only ever bought coins using them and have not withdrawn any fiat from their platform. I guess anybody who does a lot of buying via their platform should expect the same.

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[BigBoy89]

silly and unneeded question!
they are exchanger. not a bank.
even after i've signed up, they asked me to verify my account. I must submit
a valid government issued ID, acceptable high quality images of documents are:
    international passport (double page)
    national ID card (both sides)
    driver's license (both sides)


it makes BTC transaction not anonymous at all.
so i leave it and go to btc-e
how about BTC-e, is it safe and trustworthy?

[faiza1990]

silly and unneeded question!
they are exchanger. not a bank.
even after i've signed up, they asked me to verify my account. I must submit
a valid government issued ID, acceptable high quality images of documents are:
    international passport (double page)
    national ID card (both sides)
    driver's license (both sides)


it makes BTC transaction not anonymous at all.
so i leave it and go to btc-e
how about BTC-e, is it safe and trustworthy?

Currently we cannot say any exchange is safe because too much troubles around btc-e and I have to wait for nearly 2 months for solving my support ticket

[Rannasha]

silly and unneeded question!
they are exchanger. not a bank.

They work with banks though. And banks get quite nervous around Bitcoin-related businesses. In addition, the governments tend to not be happy with potential avenues of money laundering. All this KYC/AML stuff is due to the fiat-side of the exchange.

it makes BTC transaction not anonymous at all.
so i leave it and go to btc-e
how about BTC-e, is it safe and trustworthy?

BTC has never been anonymous. But what you're talking about now aren't BTC transactions, but the exchanging of BTC for fiat currency. And when fiat currency is involved, the rules of the local governments have to be obeyed.

Regarding BTC-e, they don't request verification on sign up, but there have been many reports by people getting hit with KYC/AML questions after making a deposit.

[ajw7989]

I have never gotten with any ID questions with btc-e they have been pretty anonymous. Bitstamp I sent in the scanned ID a long time ago and everything seems fine but I hardly use them so can not comment on them 100%.

[Zooey]

1. How did you learn about Bitcoin?
2. What is the purpose of your trading on Bitstamp? Please describe in as much detail as possible how you intend to use your trading account.
3. Which banks are you intend to use? Please provide the complete addresses and SWIFT codes.
4. Estimated amount that you would be depositing/withdrawing to/from your Bitstamp account per month (in USD and BTC)?
5. What type of trading will you conduct? Buying/selling/both? Estimated trade volume per month?
6. What is the source of the funds which you have so far deposited to your Bitstamp account? Please provide any financial documentation which can confirm how the funds sent to your Bitstamp account were acquired.

Those are some weirdass questions.  How did you learn about Bitcoin?   

[wetsuit]

After I sent them the answers, they asked me for a copy of a bank statement and my tax return for the last year. I refused to give them a copy of my tax return but sent them a copy of my bank statement censoring the transactions that were unrelated to Bitstamp. Within 20 mins of sending this, I got a message saying that the 'additional KYC procedure' was completed.

I am happy that my deposit will finally be processed but it was a big hassle overall and I have been put off from using them in the future.

[johnyj]

Same here, I also received such a questionnaire after I deposited 4000 euro 3 days ago. They might have a limitation coming from banks, which could further reduce their ability to move large funds

The decentralized exchange is the only way to get rid of these limitations from banks, currently I'm working on Localbitcoins.com and trying to establish some pricing mechanism so that exchange rate could be independent from centralized exchanges. And in the future I hope localbitcoins could upgrade to use multi-signature feature of bitcoin thus become a true decentralized exchange

[GroundRod]

Thanks all for the intel...

@johny - also going to actively work on my localbitcoin options here, these centralized exchanges have always been attractive for all us investors, traders and bitcoin enthusiasts alike, yet it should be coming very clear by now (to all), they are always going to fall victim to their fiat masters and we need to withdraw our support (as small investors) of them in every way possible.

[Dalmar]

These are fairly standard KYC questions, nothing to worry about.

If you open up an account at a stock broker, you will have to answer similar questions.

[analytics]

I actually already went through this second KYC process and have been making deposits no problem for months (many tens of thousands at a time).

However, a deposit this week is still in process which is very unusual for me there.   This one is between 18K.   Anyone else seeing delays suddenly that aren't normal?

[HerrAndreas]

After I sent them the answers, they asked me for a copy of a bank statement and my tax return for the last year. I refused to give them a copy of my tax return but sent them a copy of my bank statement censoring the transactions that were unrelated to Bitstamp. Within 20 mins of sending this, I got a message saying that the 'additional KYC procedure' was completed.

I am happy that my deposit will finally be processed but it was a big hassle overall and I have been put off from using them in the future.

same here.
after some back and forth support-ticketing a passport scan and a censored bank statement was all it needed.
I see no problem with those questions. It´s only the timing. These questions don´t pop up when you register or validate your account. They come up when you deposit or withdraw fiat hitting some limit and this is something you don´t see coming and something which can put you in an uncomfortable situation when you where counting on being able to use that cash.

My suggestion to them would be, to make the limits public so people know when to expect a delay in trading possibility of about a week.

[cryptid1]

My suggestion to them would be, to make the limits public so people know when to expect a delay in trading possibility of about a week.

I'm with you on this, I just got crazy when I received all this weird questions because they really are going to cost a lot of time, and so a lot of bitcoin! I'm already late! 

Anyway I'm forwarding one of the bitstamp stuff here so they can find out this suggestion in a contest and answer.