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Trading platform CoinFLEX today announced limited withdrawals for customers after freezing them last month amid a dispute with prominent crypto investor Roger “Bitcoin Jesus” Ver.
The company said in a Thursday blog post that users can now take out 10% of their funds—but not the platform’s stablecoin, flexUSD, until further notice.
“We will enable limited withdrawals for all users this week and continue to work with a laser focus on our recovery plans,” the company said.
CoinFLEX last week said it was entering arbitration in Hong Kong to recover $84 million in losses—which it blamed on one “large individual customer.” The company previously identified that individual as the famed Bitcoin evangelist and angel investor Roger Ver, though did not name him in the arbitration announcement.
The platform last month froze withdrawals—joining a long-list of companies hammered by a combination of questionable business practices and financial uncertainty due to a brutal bear market.
CoinFLEX’s story, however, is a little different: the company claims Ver, an early Bitcoin investor turned Bitcoin Cash proponent and arguably one of crypto’s most recognizable names, owes them $47 million.
CoinFLEX CEO Mark Lamb said that Ver is in default on an agreement to pay back CoinFLEX cash he owes in the form of the USDC stablecoin, and this is why the platform is struggling and had to stop withdrawals. Ver denies the allegation and claims CoinFLEX actually owes him money, which Lamb likewise denies.
Roger Ver owes CoinFLEX $47 Million USDC. We have a written contract with him obligating him to personally guarantee any negative equity on his CoinFLEX account and top up margin regularly. He has been in default of this agreement and we have served a notice of default.
Ver became known as “Bitcoin Jesus” during the cryptocurrency’s early days when he entrepreneur spent his time preaching the Bitcoin gospel and investing in early Bitcoin startups.
Bitcoin then experienced a hard fork—when a blockchain network splits in two and a new cryptocurrency is created—and Bitcoin Cash was born.
Ver now supports Bitcoin Cash over the original Bitcoin and is the former CEO of crypto education website and wallet, Bitcoin.com.
Ver did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for a comment.
Editor's note: This article was updated after publication to clarify that Roger Ver is the former and not the current CEO of Bitcoin.com.
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