Russian-speaking Bitget clients report frozen funds; the exchange calls it ‘misinformation’

Over the course of a week, several clients of cryptocurrency exchange Bitget reported the blocking of their funds. In particular, the issue drew the attention of Telegram-канал «Менделеевщина».

What the complaints allege

ForkLog contacted several users who left comments on the post.

One of them — Dmitry — said that Bitget had blocked 27,000 USDT in his account. He received the notification on November 16.

«I received an email saying that the exchange had conducted a review of my account and there were questions concerning a $1500 transaction to a certain wallet two months ago», — he told ForkLog in a comment.

Reviewing the outgoing transactions, the user recalled that he sent this amount to a friend for a cold wallet:

«There is a screenshot on the other side, but they stopped replying, the funds are blocked, I am awaiting clarifications. For now I do not understand the reason, if I sent the funds, and not to me».

Dmitry noted that he and his acquaintance are Ukrainian citizens and suggested that the situation could be related to sanctions in some way.

If the problem is not resolved, the user intends to go to court, as “the block on $27,000 is not very pleasant”.

ForkLog was told by another affected person, a Russian citizen, that the exchange may ignore requests for a prolonged period.

His Bitget account was frozen as far back as July 19: then the exchange blocked an outgoing transaction of 250 USDT, followed by an account with a balance of 2,500 USDT.

«For four months the exchange gave no explanation. Then, somehow, it all resolved itself», — the user said.

A third Bitget client who left comments under the post did not respond to ForkLog’s requests. We will update the piece if we obtain his input.

Another complaint dated November 16 was published on Reddit by a user going by AnnaCrypto001.

The claimant reported that her account with 8,000 USDT had been blocked more than ten days earlier without explanation. Support and the compliance team at Bitget offered no assistance.

«Today I found that my access to the account is completely restricted. Despite sending several emails to the support address, I did not receive a response. Moreover, I do not know the reason for the block» — the statement said.

The exchange’s position

In a ForkLog interview, Bitget chief executive Grace Chen described reports of account blocks affecting customers from specific countries as “misinformation”.

She stressed that the exchange complies with the necessary regulatory AML-norms in order to ensure its operations.

«Account features may be temporarily restricted for users from any country when violations of the company’s AML policy or other laws are identified by our risk- and legal-departments. All users, not only Russian-speaking ones, are bound to comply when registering an account and agreeing to the platform’s terms», — said Chen.

According to her, Bitget’s policy in every region is to comply with the relevant rules and laws established by local authorities:

«We closely monitor changes in legislation worldwide and swiftly adapt if new laws and rules arise».

ForkLog also asked Bitget for comments on the cases described above and will update the material if a response is received.

The Bitget cryptocurrency exchange has been operating since 2018, registered on the Seychelles. The platform serves more than two million users in 100 countries.

In January 2022, clients faced numerous account blocks on the Binance exchange. As later emerged, the case was linked to the Bitzlato crypto exchange, which US authorities accused of laundering $700 million for the darknet marketplace Hydra.