Cryptocurrency exchange Bitforex reported that its users would be able to withdraw funds for the first time in five months after police investigated its team members.
In a July 19 X post, Bitforex said the Jiangsu Province police in China “detained and investigated” its team on Feb. 23, making the platform inaccessible to users. The exchange did not provide details about any potential criminal investigation but suggested it had resolved the situation “after persistent efforts and communication.”
According to Bitforex, users will be able to withdraw their assets from the platform “soon” but will not be able to buy or sell tokens. On Feb. 23, users withdrew roughly $56 million from the Hong Kong-based exchange, when the platform stopped responding to users. Bitforex had made no posts to X since Feb. 20.
In March, Hong Kong’s securities regulator warned residents about Bitforex being a “suspicious” crypto platform. The absence of communication also led to projects like the memecoin CatCoin threatening lawsuits against Bitforex.
Former Bitforex CEO Jason Luo resigned in January, just a few weeks before the platform halted withdrawals. On July 19, he posted the same message regarding the police investigation to his X account.