Is the Crypto Exchange Bitfinex Insolvent?

By Chetna Phour

Once again the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex is facing the allegation of insolvency on Twitter.

The crypto exchanges have also faced similar kind of allegations when Bitfinex got hacked in August 2016. The hackers stole around 120,000 bitcoins from the segregated wallets of users. At that time the value of stolen Bitcoins was about $72 million. It was the second largest theft of Bitcoins.

A week ago the rumours of the insolvency of the Bitfinex again got a massive boost when the stories about the insolvency of Peurto Rico based Noble Bank international surfaced. Some people think that it is the primary bank of Bitfinex. The bank is trying to find buyers. Crypto community believes that this news is alarming if there is some problem with the bank then there might be some issues with Bitfinex and Tether. Both were the clients of Noble Bank but left the bank recently. Because of losing customers including Tether and Bitfinex the bank is no longer profitable.

Some Bitfinex’s users are also claiming that they are facing difficulty in receiving fiat withdrawals from Bitfinex. A Medium user, ‘ProofOfResearch’ wrote that after investing the complaints about the crypto exchange Bitfinex on social media he found that Bitfinex is no longer solvent and the users must remove their funds from the crypto exchange immediately.

Yesterday on the Medium blog, Bitfinex answered the investigation by stating that “although there had been ups and downs along the way, since Bitfinex introduced fiat operations in 2015, those investigator who have been scrutinizing every complication and quick to scream insolvency seems to have little understanding of what this concept means and what they are generally talking about.”

To address the allegations Bitfinex said that the crypto exchange is not insolvent. The articles which are claiming the insolvency of Bitfinex do not have any explanation about why. According to Bitfinex, Nobel Bank does not have any impact on the cryptocurrency exchange whether it is solvency, survivability, or operations.

“Both fiat and cryptocurrency withdrawal are functioning normally. Verified Bitfinex users can freely withdraw Euros, Japanese Yen, Pounds Sterling, and U.S. Dollars. Complications continue to exist for us in the domain of fiat transactions, as they do for most cryptocurrency related organisations. However, we continue to do our utmost to minimise any waiting times associated with fiat deposits and withdrawals.”