Tech platform Horizen has claimed centralised exchange Bitfare is a “malicious entity” and is urging customers to avoid it.
Horizen, launched in May 2017, has a native cryptocurrency called ZEN that has an optional privacy feature allowing users to control their digital footprint.
In December, Horizen announced that Bitfare had started supporting a suite of ZEN trading pairs.
Soon after, staff claim they were made aware of numerous minor customer service and user experience issues and pulled the original announcement.
Horizen adds that the minor customer issues have escalated to wallet balances and deposit histories being reset without explanation.
A statement reads: “Given the information available to us, we must now assume that Bitfare is a malicious entity looking to take advantage of trusting users.
“We suggest that users do not send ZEN, or any other cryptocurrency, to Bitfare.io or attempt to utilise any other services it might offer.
“Horizen cannot and should not be able to control which organisations provide support for ZEN, so we must remind the community to exercise extreme caution when sending ZEN to any custodial exchange or service provider.
“We do of course carry out due diligence prior to listing organisations on our website and prior to making announcements across our social channels. However, this due diligence cannot guarantee that any particular entity is 100% trustworthy.”
We have enough reasons to assume that Bitfare is a malicious entity looking to take advantage of trusting users.
Please do NOT send ZEN, or any other cryptocurrency, to Bitfare or attempt to utilize any other services it might offer. Read for details now: https://t.co/xWzc2FoSDY
— Horizen (@horizenglobal) January 5, 2020
It added: “The safest place to store your ZEN has been and always will be in a cold storage wallet that you own and have backed up to prevent accidental loss.
“We want to thank the community members that came forward with their concerns and alerted us to potential problems with this exchange.
“Your reports allowed us to prevent many others from falling victim to this malicious attempt to take advantage of the Horizen community.”
Bitfare has been contacted for a comment.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.