Bitcoin Price Spikes to Nearly $9,000 on WEX Crypto Exchange

[Zippyjuan]

On other exchanges it ranged between only $6200 and $6400.

For a cryptocurrency exchange that has seen its bitcoin price trade at a market premium since launch, the spike to nearly $9,000 on the WEX exchange on Wednesday was an outlier.

Some background: in July of last year, U.S. and international law enforcement took aim at BTC-e, the long-running – and long-mysterious – cryptocurrency exchange. In a dramatic turn, a Russian national and one of BTC-e's suspected employees was arrested and charged with laundering billions of dollars while American regulators moved to slap the exchange with a massive $110 million fine.

In the months since, BTC-e has returned under the WEX banner while Alexander Vinnik has been the subject of a legal tug-of-war between Russia, the U.S. and, now, France, each of which is seeking to extradite him. Vinnik has that he is innocent of the charges levied against him.

Yet Wednesday's move is a curious one, with the price of bitcoin (against the U.S. dollar) on WEX climbing to $8,999,

By contrast, CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) hasn't climbed above $6,396 since the start of trading on July 11.

The sharp increase started around 16:00 (UTC) from a comparatively high price point of about $7,800. To put things in perspective, Coinbase, a competing US-based crypto exchange, featured bitcoin prices throughout the entirety of the day between the range of $6,200 and $6,400.

So what gives?

As might be expected, the unexpected surge stoked speculation that WEX is either insolvent, suffering banking problems or gearing up for a calculated exit. BTC-e's long-mysterious reputation and links to the now-defunct dark market Silk Road may arguably have provided fuel for such allegations.

The move also comes a day before WEX will undergo a planned maintenance period scheduled to last for 2 hours, according to a post on Twitter from July 9.

For its part, the exchange hasn't commented on its public-facing channels about the price spike, and a message sent to WEX's official account on Twitter wasn't returned by press time.

[dannno]

This may be another Gox in the making, not sure..

If you have anything substancial on this exchange and are worried, you can still convert it to ZEC (ZCASH) and withdrawal that from the exchange.


Concern Mounts Over Potential Crypto Exchange WEX Exit Scam

Users are increasingly concerned that an exchange claiming to be based in Singapore is pulling an exit scam following suspicious trading activity and locked wallets that are now preventing all users from withdrawing funds. (me: except for ZEC ZCASH)

On July 11, CCN reported that BTC/USD was trading on the WEX exchange at over $9,000 despite the global market average being under $6,400. After spiking to $9,000 the Bitcoin reportedly traded steadily at $8,000 – over $1,600 more than the global price. USDT/USD also revealed strange anomalies with the stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the price of the US dollar trading at $1.30 on WEX.

While the opportunity to buy Bitcoin at a separate exchange and attempt to sell it for profit on WEX was likely tempting to many, there was concern that the trading price may have been deliberately manipulated to draw users into the exchange for an exit scam.


Those urging users to avoid the exchange and its inflated prices seem to have offered sage advice as WEX has now locked wallet withdrawals, (me: except for ZEC ZCASH) citing necessary maintenance. However, while withdrawals are locked until July 22, users can still deposit funds to the site which raises questions over the nature of the alleged maintenance.

An unofficial subreddit for the exchange cites multiple examples over the last few months of usersclaiming that the exchange has taken their funds and ignored all support tickets, something also repeatedly claimed by exchange users on Twitter.

WEX is a rebranded version of the BTC-e exchange which was shut down in connection to a multi-billion dollar money laundering operation with a Russian national named Alexander Vinnik reportedly charged in connection with the criminal operation.

Singapore business records indicate that the exchange is officially owned by one Dmitry Vasiliev, but he recently claimed to have lost control of the exchange and was unable to clarify exactly who was in charge.

RBK reports that a former Soviet militiaman called Dmitry Khavchenko was plannning on buying the exchange – Khavchenko is a Ukranian militia member with the callsign ‘Sailor’ and fought in Crimea to support the Russian annexation in 2014, seen in this video armed with a machine gun handing over to authorities the flight recorders from the Malaysian Flight 17 jet that was shot down over Ukraine in 2014 killing 283 passengers and 15 crew.

“There will be no more secret owners. I decided to become a cryptomillionaire,” Khavchenko told RBK, going on to state that he intended to transfer the company headquarters to Crimea and register the company in wartorn Donbass, Ukraine. The Russian media outlet also reports that people connected to Konstantin Malofeev are becoming involved in the management of the crypto exchange. Malofeev is a Russian businessman under criminal investigation and sanctions for allegedly financing illegal militant groups in Donbass in 2014.

WEX has not responded publicly to claims that an exit scam is taking place, nor have staff assured users that their funds are safe.