Crypto Exchange Zipmex Pauses Withdrawals, Citing 'Circumstances Beyond Our Control’

Zipmex, a Singapore-based digital assets trading platform, today announced that it is pausing customer withdrawals,

The company took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce the move, citing “a combination of circumstances beyond our control” that made it take the decision.

“Due to a combination of circumstances beyond our control including volatile market conditions, and the resulting financial difficulties of our key business partners, to maintain the integrity of our platform, we would be pausing withdrawals until further notice,” said the exchange.

Zipmex, which markets itself as “Asia’s leading digital assets exchange” and has offices in Thailand, Indonesia, and Australia, offers a variety of products including cryptocurrency spot trading and interest-bearing accounts.

According to the company’s website, users can enjoy up to 10% in rewards per year by depositing their funds on the platform. For example, Zipmex claims to offer 6% returns on Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), and 10% on the USDC stablecoin.

The exchange had a trading volume of $5,4 million over the past 24 hours, per CoinMarketCap.

Previously, the company raised $52 million in a Series B funding round and had plans to expand into more markets in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam.

Zipmex also secured an undisclosed amount in financing from Coinbase, America’s largest crypto exchange, in June. According to reports, Coinbase initially eyed an acquisition of the exchange, however, the sides agreed on “a strategic investment” instead.

Decrypt has reached out to Zipmex for comments and will update the article should we hear back.

More woes for crypto firms

Zipmex joins a growing list of crypto-centric entities that have moved to pause withdrawals in recent weeks.

Some of them eventually ended up filing filing for bankruptcy, while others still hope to resume operations.

Earlier this month, another Singapore-based crypto platform, Vauld, suspended all deposits, withdrawals, and trading operations, citing financial difficulties amid volatile market conditions.

Vauld is backed by leading VCs, including Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, and Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, and is currently in talks with crypto lending firm Nexo, which expressed its intention to acquire the firm.

Legion Strategies, a hedge fund affiliated with Anthony Scaramucci's Skybridge Capital, also “temporarily” halted investor redemptions on Monday, telling Decrypt that “the suspension is driven largely by a liquidity mismatch resulting from late-stage private investments in the fund.”

Legion Strategies holds a part of its portfolio in cryptocurrencies, although the firm insists that “there is zero risk of any asset liquidation.”