WEX is a small cryptocurrency exchange that launched last year, immediately after an exchange called BTC-E was closed when U.S. and Greek officials found evidence of money laundering taking place on the exchange. Following the shutdown, BTC-E was charged with a $110 million fine by U.S. regulators. Reports later surfaced that a Russian national named Alexander Vinnik had been arrested and charged for laundering billions of dollars using the BTC-E exchange.
After its launch, WEX immediately began marketing itself to former BTC-E users. The exchange’s website design and trading options bear striking similarities to its BTC-E predecessor.
Fast-forward to July of this year when serious concerns surrounding WEX began to surface.
Public suspicions surrounding WEX began on July 13th when Coindesk published an article titled ‘Something Strange is Going On at a Crypto Exchange Called WEX‘. The article reveals that in mid-July there were already a number of complaints directed at WEX beginning to surface from users who reported that their accounts’ withdrawal functions had been disabled.
These reports were followed by news that in mid-July, while Bitcoin’s price was at $6,000, WEX was reporting that Bitcoin’s price had taken off to almost $9,000. The price discrepancy continued for several days.
Finally, on July 19th, WEX tweeted that it would temporarily shutdown its site for maintenance. The exchange claimed that as part of the maintenance, users would be temporarily unable to withdraw funds from their accounts. On July 19th at 1:41 AM WEX tweeted that maintenance on the site had finished, however, WEX users are still unable to withdraw funds.