This week news.Bitcoin.com spoke with Jack Kingston, a cryptocurrency trader from Melbourne, Australia, who lost $430,000 USD worth of bitcoins at the exchange BTC-e. Mr. Kingston was quite surprised when he tried to log in one day, and the exchange was “under maintenance.” However, the Australian trader was even more astonished to find out the U.S. government painted all of the platform’s users as criminals and took his money.
Reporter: Can you tell our readers about your story?
Jack Kingston (JK): I was trading on BTC-e, and there was nothing illegal tied to my funds. The only reason I was trading on BTC-e is because it was so easy. I’ve been trading cryptocurrencies for years, even during the Mt Gox debacle, but I lucked out on that one. I have an account with Poloniex as well, but I could not get second level verification, and that was making getting my funds difficult.
I sent Poloniex an Australian passport which pretty much opens doors for me everywhere, and they have my email addresses and a bill for my living address. Yet, still 2-3 months pass, and I still cannot get better verification. Which means I can put $400,000 into an account, but you can only withdraw $2,000 a day.BTC-e was easy, and that was the only reason why I traded there, and the rest is sort of history man. A lot of the money came from a bunch of dash nodes that I sold, as you know a few Dash nodes are worth a lot of money. A lot of traders in the troll box were talking about selling for USD just before August 1, but then the shit hit the fan, and no one could do anything. This is where I found myself — Can you imagine the horror? Literally right after I sold these Dash nodes and the rest of the money I had on there.
The BTC-e dashboard.
RP: So you lost close to a half a million dollars?
JK: Yes a shitload of money, $430K USD. I’m not in the position of where I am struggling and such, but that’s neither here nor there. I started buying bitcoin when it was just a few dollars and sold at around $800 and then got into dash when it was very low — And dash has gone up twelve-fold since then whereas bitcoin was like 33 percent.
But the real reason I was trading so much money is because when you’re swinging $100,000 to 200,000 trades and bitcoin moves two percent you’re doing alright. For me, it’s a part time thing on the side.
RP: Will you try to get the money back from the FBI?
JK: Yeah if there’s any way I can access my money. I have email accounts, I can log into my account, I have proof the money there is mine. I’m not sure what I’m planning to do yet.Some of this shit I’ve been reading about in the news saying that ‘everyone who used BTC-e is laundering money’ is bullshit! I don’t know what kind of idiot comes up with that idea. The reality of it is BTC-e is much easier to use than many of the other exchanges. I like to trade, and I like to short bitcoin. There’s nothing wrong with me doing that.
Where does the U.S. get the jewels to says that I can’t trade with my own funds? That’s pretty unreal mate, if you think about it.
How do you feel about BTC-e?
JK: There was never any problems short of the FBI coming in and destroying it. I don’t understand how the FBI can claim jurisdiction over my money. As far as the funds of innocent people who have money on there I don’t know why they won’t let people access it.If BTC-e came back and refunded my money, I would continue to use them. I would trade with them after everything they’ve been through for them to be loyal to customers. There’s no reason why I wouldn’t use them.
Maybe they had a bad egg in there, but that doesn’t give the U.S. the right to claim my hard earned money. It’s like the police force, you got some police that do the wrong thing, and if they get charged, you don’t shut down the whole police force.
The Elite Want Everything
Mr. Kingston says he is a little hopeful about BTC-e’s recent announcement rand continues to tell me he has no qualms with the exchange whatsoever. It’s the U.S. government doing this and is not allowing him access to his funds, Mr. Kingston explains. There has been little to no information provided by U.S. law enforcement so far about the “purses” BTC-e says they confiscated.Mr. Kingston tells me he’s sorry for talking so negative about the U.S. but thinks it’s really just a government issue that’s affecting us all.“It’s not just the U.S. mate, but they’re playing a big part. It’s a government thing worldwide. The elite want everything while us regular people flounder. The U.S. has no right to my money,” Mr. Kingston adds.
What do you think about the Australian trader and his loss? Do you think the U.S. has a right to the funds on BTC-e? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Report is from bitcoin.com/Images via Shutterstock, and BTC-e.com’s dashboard.