暂停运营、提现困难 “雷声”笼罩币圈交易所

Source: Beijing Business Daily

Recently, there have been bursts of thunder in the currency circle exchange, and many people in the currency circle have tightened their nerves.

In the past two days, the news that Hoo of the Currency Circle Exchange will stop all trading services hit the hot search. From the reason disclosed by the exchange, it is because there is a gap in cash flow. However, the reporter of the Beijing Business Daily learned from the insiders that as early as June, the platform had shown that users could not withdraw coins.

"In addition to the reasons for the bad market situation, the asset security problem of this type of currency circle central exchange is the root. Once the platform loses money and users withdraw money in a centralized way, it is easy to collapse." The insider said pointedly.

However, this is a common problem in almost all currency circle exchanges. The reporter of Beijing Business Daily noticed that in recent months, many institutions have shut down their services due to liquidity problems, and millions of users have no access to help. And behind this pile after pile, it is also revealed that although these trading platforms are said to be registered abroad, they are still open to mainland users. These transactions without capital supervision and legal protection, the risks behind them deserve vigilance.

　　 Tiger symbol crash?

"There is also my hard-earned money" "The amount of money raised a while ago has been limited, and now the announcement is completely cool"... Many announcements issued by Tiger Fu in the past two days have made many users of the platform worried.

According to the announcement on Hufu's Debt Currency Conversion Plan, Partner Investment and Other Business Optimization Plan issued by Hufu, it will stop all trading services, revoke all business status and transfer user assets to the wallet account from August 1; At the same time, the platform also launched the so-called stable currency token IUSD. On August 1, the bond currency conversion plan and partner investment plan will be implemented. Users can convert some of the existing assets on the platform through bond currency conversion, allowing users to trade in the innovation trading area.

However, users obviously don't buy this conversion scheme. Just on July 27, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily noticed that a Hufu user commented on the social platform, "This debt currency conversion scheme was also done when the exchange ran away. In short, it is: 'I ran away, leaving some air coins for you. If I get rich, I can consider returning your money'".

Some users even said bluntly, "Hufu has once again refreshed the shameless lower limit of the" run away "of the exchange. Don't be greedy for cheap service fees, or even bigger traps are waiting for you".

According to the Hufu announcement, the shutdown was mainly due to the liquidity crisis. He said that recently, due to the sharp changes in market conditions, several external investment institutions, public chains, lending projects and platforms have had problems one after another, leading to a gap in cash flow. At present, they are communicating with the outside world to recover external scattered funds, but they do face challenges.

Rome wasn't built in a day. The reporter of Beijing Business Daily learned from relevant insiders that as early as more than a month ago, many users had difficulty in withdrawing money.

Consistent with what the person said, a reporter of the Beijing Business Daily found that as early as June 19, Hufu had released a message saying: "Recently, due to the volatility of the market, coupled with the liquidation of some large institutions in the industry, liquidity depletion and other issues, the panic of users has intensified. As a result, the number of withdrawal users on the Hufu platform is also increasing on a large scale. Due to the accumulation of a large number of user withdrawal needs during the processing period, in order to ensure the safety and accuracy of withdrawal assets, the withdrawal review time may be delayed for 24-72 hours. "

However, this delay lasted intermittently for up to a month. Since then, unlike the previous marketing advertising and incentive activities, most of the announcements issued by Hufu have been related to the delay in withdrawing money, closing business, off shelf transactions, etc.

It is no accident that the Hufu Exchange has difficulty in withdrawing money. Cai Kailong, a financial science and technology research expert, told the Beijing Business Daily that objectively, there is an impact of the macro environment. The Fed's interest rate hike and statement contraction have an impact on global asset prices. As a high-risk virtual currency, it will also be affected. As one of the industrial chains, exchanges, especially small and medium-sized institutions, are relatively weak in risk resistance, and naturally will be greatly affected.

"These small and medium-sized exchanges usually increase leverage in a bull market, and even some mobile users carry out leveraged transactions. Such irregularities are very common. It is possible to make money in a bull market, but in a bear market, there may be insolvency. When users withdraw money or withdraw from the market, the exchange cannot afford it." Cai Kailong further said, In addition, with the recent collective decline of virtual currency, the bankruptcy of some large institutions in the currency circle, such as Sanjian Capital, will also affect these exchanges.

For the reasons for the closure and whether to misappropriate user assets, the reporter of Beijing Business Daily tried to interview Hufu, but no contact information was found on its website. In addition, the reporter tried to interview Hufu staff through WeChat group, but WeChat reminded that "the other party's account violated the use rules and could not add friends".

As of July 27, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily found that after entering the mobile phone number, setting the password, and entering the verification code, you can still register and log in to the Hufu platform normally.

　　 Hard wound exposure

In fact, except for tiger charms, the currency circle exchanges of all sizes are not peaceful recently.

Just ten days ago, AEX Exchange, the old trading platform of the currency circle, also said that it would suspend platform related services. The platform also fell into liquidity crisis when the virtual currency fell sharply in June.

In addition, on July 26, foreign media reported that the US Securities Regulatory Commission was investigating Coinbase, a cryptocurrency trading platform, to see whether the latter improperly allowed Americans to trade digital assets that should have been registered as securities. People familiar with the matter said that since Coinbase expanded the number of tokens it provided for transactions, the CSRC's review of the platform has increased.

"At present, the biggest problem of major exchanges in the market is that they can't guarantee the safety of users' assets. Maybe the wallet assets you see in the centralized exchange are not your actual assets. No one can guarantee that they will not be misappropriated, and there is no regulatory authority to regulate them." Cai Kailong pointed out that from the shutdown events of many exchanges, It also exposes the hard wound of the centralized exchange.

Another member of the currency circle also confirmed this statement. He told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that "user digital assets actually exist in the centralized wallet of the exchange, not on the chain. Although users will see the display of corresponding digital assets on the platform, this is just a false number, and users can't tell whether the actual assets have been misappropriated".

At present, there are countless large and small exchanges operating in the market. A number of senior people in the currency circle told the Beijing Business Daily that at present, virtual currency exchanges are all centralized exchanges. From the perspective of the whole industry, asset power concentration, lack of adequate reserve mechanism, lack of risk control system and compliance system are basically common problems of currency circle exchanges.

"Even if some foreign exchanges are under local supervision, they rarely misappropriate customer assets for investment, but even so, they will be subject to the review of local regulators who regard virtual currencies as securities, and there will be some policy risks overall," Cai Kailong said.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg of the collapse of the belief in the currency circle. For most currency circle exchanges, what they fear is not the rise and fall of tokens, but the concentrated withdrawal of cash, which is like a game of two cups and two lids. At this time, as long as there are a few twists and turns, the house collapses instantly." Researcher Pan Helin also said that the currency circle exchanges are private and centralized, without supervision and decision-making power checks and balances. In fact, users are staring at the token price difference and the trading platform is staring at the user's principal.

"Especially in recent years, only individuals can directly go online to the exchange through the code casing of the exchange website. This low threshold, private, and unregulated platform once became a tool for money, and it was the user's withdrawal behavior that finally lifted the lid." Pan Helin said.

　　 nanke dream

Affected by multiple news sources, the virtual money market continued to decline in recent two days. At 19:00 on July 26, Bitcoin quoted US $21074, down 4.43% in 24 hours; Ethereum quoted US $1410, down 8.84% in 24 hours; At 18:00 on July 27, the price of multi currencies had not rebounded significantly, of which Bitcoin quoted US $21295 and Ethereum quoted US $1457.

Every collapse of the exchange will teach platform users a lesson in tears. For ordinary consumers, it is important to realize that in addition to capital security, these exchanges also have policy risks and legal risks, which cannot be ignored.

At present, the attitude of multi-party supervision against virtual currency is firm. It has been determined that the business activities related to virtual currency are illegal financial activities, and virtual currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethercoin are not legally reimbursable. It is also illegal to emphasize that domestic foreign currency exchanges provide services to domestic residents.

However, up to now, reporters of Beijing Business Daily can still find some advertisements for overseas exchanges to promote marketing on some search websites and social platforms, and even launch new member benefits such as "receiving 100U and continuous opening bonus".

In this regard, insiders suggest that for high-risk currency related institutions, we need to continue to carry out penetrating strikes and rectification in China, increase monitoring and attention to currency related institutions, and establish typical cases to deter the market.

In addition, under the surging undercurrent, there are still some consumers trying to seek high prices in danger. In this regard, Pan Helin pointed out that the domestic policy on virtual currency is clear, and users should be soberly aware that the dream of ten years of virtual cryptocurrency is about to wake up. Don't take this last stick.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Liu Sihong