• On Jan. 12, 2023, Bulgarian authorities raided the offices of crypto lender Nexo and the company experienced a significant amount of withdrawals shortly after.
• The company held 133,263 bitcoin on Jan. 12 and as of Jan. 13, 124,939 bitcoin had been withdrawn from the platform, amounting to $157.21 million.
• Nexo has denied any wrongdoing and claims to adhere to “very stringent anti-money laundering and know-your-customer policies.”
On the morning of January 12th, 2023, Bulgarian authorities raided the offices of crypto lender Nexo, causing a flurry of activity – and withdrawals – from the platform. Nexo is an online digital currency lending platform that allows customers to borrow against their cryptocurrency holdings.
At the time of the raid, Nexo held around 133,263 Bitcoin, worth around $2.5 billion using current exchange rates. Initially, it was unclear what the raid was in relation to, though it was later revealed that Nexo was under investigation for a number of potential violations, including tax requirements, money laundering, and bypassing financial sanctions associated with the Russian Federation.
Shortly after the raid, customers began to withdraw their Bitcoin from the platform. Within 24 hours, 8,324 Bitcoin had been withdrawn, amounting to around $157.21 million. This left Nexo with a total of 124,939 Bitcoin on its platform.
The company has since issued a statement on Twitter, denying any wrongdoing and claiming that they adhere to “very stringent anti-money laundering and know-your-customer policies”. It seems that the raid is still ongoing, and Nexo’s future remains uncertain.
Given the large sum of money that has been withdrawn from the platform in such a short period of time, it remains to be seen how the company will recover from this incident. Nexo has been a popular platform for cryptocurrency users, and it will be interesting to see how this incident affects its popularity in the future.
For now, users are advised to keep an eye on Nexo’s real-time attestation website for any further updates, as the situation continues to develop.