Breaking: OKEx founder Mingxing Xu arrested while cryptocurrency withdrawals remain suspended
|- At noon on October 16, OKEx suspended all withdrawals after announcing that they were cooperating with an investigation.
- Eventually, it was found that Mingxing Xu was arrested at least a week ago.
Although the official announcement made by OKEx states that an individual in possession of the private keys of the cold wallet is 'cooperating with a public security bureau in investigations,' Jay Hao, the co-founder, and CEO of OKEx stated that the issue was over a personal matter.
According to a recent report by Bloomberg, the Chinese police have launched an investigation linked to OKEx, but it's still unknown what prompted the investigation. The exchange has made several statements assuring clients that the funds are safe and other activities will continue as normal:
We understand that the suspension of withdrawals directly impacts our users’ experience on OKEx, and we wholeheartedly apologize for this,” OKEx CEO Jay Hao said in the statement. “All other activities — including deposits, spot trading, derivatives, staking, etc. — remain unaffected.
However, it seems that the arrest of Mingxing Xu might not be directly related to OKEx. According to a non-official report, Xu was already released on bail and was arrested to assist in the investigation related to a backdoor listing of the European Group in Hong Kong last year.
Speculation...underground bank investigation? pic.twitter.com/gU8Mfonfby
— Matthew Graham (@mattysino) October 16, 2020
Speculation...underground bank investigation? pic.twitter.com/gU8Mfonfby
— Matthew Graham (@mattysino) October 16, 2020
FUD not affecting the crypto market anymore
OKEx is not the only exchange releasing bad news, just recently, KuCoin got hacked losing more than $200 million worth of digital assets. However, it seems that the crypto market is not reacting negatively anymore. In the past month, the total market capitalization remains in an uptrend, climbing from a low of $346 billion on September 16 to $356 billion currently.
Perhaps the recent announcements from well-established companies and institutional investors purchasing large sums of Bitcoin have counteracted the negative news. Square recently bought $50 million worth of Bitcoin and Stone Ridge, a multi-billion dollar asset management company purchased close to $115 million worth of BTC.
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