OKEx was forced to deactivate withdrawals on its platform.
The price of Bitcoin is likely to fall below 11,000 during the OKEx investigation.
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The internal imbroglio currently affecting the OKEx crypto exchange platform has taken a different turn with reports that the company founder is in custody.
According to a report in the Chinese media Caixin, on 16 October, internal sources at the exchange reported that police had arrested OKEx founder Star Xu earlier in the month. Mr. Xu has reportedly not shown up for work in recent days.
As previously reported by BeInCrypto, OKEx abruptly stopped withdrawals on its platform on 16 October. The news came without any prior warning, bringing the price of Bitcoin (BTC) down in the process.
Xu’s reported arrest probably confirms speculation about internal problems within the exchange. In a post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, OKEx CEO Jay Hao revealed that the guardians of the platform’s private keys were having „personal problems“. According to his message, these problems have not affected the company’s operations and Bitcoin Trend App user funds have remained safe.
In September 2018, the Shanghai police arrested the founder of OKEx to question him about his alleged involvement in the WFEE Coin scam.
Bitcoin is currently down by more than 2% following the announcement of the detention of OKEx’s founder by the police and the ongoing investigation on the platform. This drop puts additional downward pressure on the BTC, which has had to face a refusal to pay $11,500.