Bitfinex has updated its customers after halting fiat deposits to the exchange last week, a decision that sparked rumours over potential banking issues and insolvency.
The Hong Kong-based exchange has endured a turbulent week with stable-coin USD-Tether losing more than 8% of its value, while Bitcoin has been trading on the exchange at an astonishing $1,000 premium during certain periods.
However, Bitfinex took steps to return to normality yesterday morning, announcing it would lift deposit restrictions on Tuesday.
Their statement read: “We are working to implement a new and increasingly robust fiat deposit system to be available in the next 24 hours, by Tuesday, October 16, 2018, to allow for the efficient processing of fiat deposits. Until then, we apologise for the inconvenience of the situation.”
Fiat deposit update – October 15th, 2018. https://t.co/F8o2ltVCN4 pic.twitter.com/ukE9JsRB0j
— Bitfinex (@bitfinex) October 15, 2018
They went on to clarify that withdrawals were still being processed as before, and that deposits were only ‘temporarily paused for certain groups’. Price-action moved to the downside last week after Bitfinex halted deposits, only to retrace today on their update.
Bitfinex hit out at critics claiming that they had bank issues, stating: “Bitfinex is not insolvent, and a constant stream of Medium articles claiming otherwise is not going to change this. As one of only a very few exchanges operating since 2013, with a small team and low operating costs, we do not entirely understand the arguments that purport to show us to be insolvent without providing any explanation about why. The wallets below represent a small fraction of Bitfinex cryptocurrency holdings and do not take into account fiat holdings of any kind.”
In spite of their response there were still a number of reports circling claiming that Bitfinex’s private bank account with HSBC was no longer active, provoking more panic from the crypto community.
Click here for a comprehensive guide to Bitfinex, covering their sign up process, trading tools and future plans.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.