This isn't the first sign of shakiness at Abra, which was alleged to be insolvent by the Texas state securities regulator in 2023. The company wound down its US operations in mid-2023 and refunded $82 million to US customers, after reaching a settlement with 25 state regulators. Abra also faced a lawsuit from the US federal securities regulator in 2024, which they settled in August of that year.
Crypto lender Abra pauses withdrawals for international customers
The Abra cryptocurrency lender sent an email to customers announcing that "Abra Earn international services are currently paused, effective immediately", attributing the decision to "broader risk management efforts" and saying it was "influenced by external circumstances outside of our control". This has raised concern among Abra customers, and carries troubling echoes of the wave of crypto lenders pausing withdrawals before they collapsed during the 2022 "crypto winter".
Catalyx exchange ordered to freeze trading after theft
The Canadian Catalyx cryptocurrency exchange has frozen trading and halted withdrawals after an emergency order by the Alberta Securities Commission on December 21. Catalyx consented to the order.
Catalyx announced in a press release on December 28 that they had "recently discovered a security breach on the Platform in connection with the holding of crypto assets on behalf of clients. Management suspects that this security breach, which may involve an employee, has resulted in the loss of a portion of the crypto assets held by the Company on behalf of its clients".
Catalyx did not state how much had been stolen.
- Interim Cease Trade Order by the Alberta Securities Commission [archive]
- "CatalX CTS Ltd. Announces Security Breach, Loss of Crypto Assets and Ongoing Investigation", press release by Catalyx [archive]
JPEX hikes withdrawal fees amidst possible collapse
"We believe that the platform will not collapse," wrote JPEX, amidst apparent collapse. JPEX is a Hong Kong crypto exchange that was advertising more than 20% APY on various staking products.
The JPEX cryptocurrency exchange was the subject of a September 13 consumer warning by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), who said they were promoting services to Hong Kong residents without proper licensure. The following day, attendees of the Token 2049 crypto event observed that JPEX had abandoned the booth they'd rented. Then, JPEX hiked their withdrawal fees to as high as $999, and limited withdrawals to $1,000.
According to the South China Morning Post, customers have filed at least 83 complaints about the exchange, pertaining to crypto assets priced at $4.3 million. Hong Kong police have disclosed they are investigating the firm.
JPEX released a statement that the SFC was "exerting undue pressure on our platform", and asserted that the watchdog should "bear full responsibility for undermining the prospects" of the crypto industry in the region. Later, they accused their "partnered third-party market makers" of "maliciously fr[eezing] funds". They announced that, as a result, they would be pausing their Earn product. They also suspended their platform's gaming feature.
Prime Trust halts withdrawals as acquisition falls through
The planned acquisition by BitGo of the Prime Trust crypto custodian fell through on June 22, as BitGo announced that they had "made the hard decision to terminate its acquisition" after "considerable effort and work to find a path forward". BitGo had announced its intention to acquire Prime Trust on June 8.
Shortly after BitGo's announcement, Prime Trust client Stably announced that they had received a letter from Prime Trust announcing that deposits and withdrawals would be halted. Prime Trust stated that the halt was by order of the Nevada Financial Institution Division, which had been issued the previous day.
FPG halts withdrawals after $15–20 million hack
The institutional cryptocurrency broker Floating Point Group (FPG) announced to customers on June 14 that they would be suspending all activity on their platform following a "cyber security incident" that had occurred on June 11. "While the loss at this point is still being investigated and analyzed, the number as we understand it today is between $15M-$20M in cryptocurrencies lost," they wrote on Twitter.
The group announced that they were working with "the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, our regulators and Chainalysis" to investigate the attack. The group had previously earned SOC 2 certification for its cybersecurity controls.
Delio crypto lender suspends withdrawals
South Korean cryptocurrency lending platform Delio announced to its customers on June 14 that they would be suspending withdrawals. In a letter to customers, they wrote that the decision was taken in response to the withdrawal suspension by Korean yield platform Haru Invest the previous day, which they said had led to a "sharp increase in market volatility and increased confusion among investors". Haru's suspension had caused a "sudden surge of withdrawals on our end", said Delio CEO James Jung.
Delio, like Haru, advertised yields of more than 10%.
- "출금 중지 조치 안내", Delio (in Korean)
- "Two Crypto Platforms Halt Withdrawals in an Echo of the Sector’s 2022 Woes", Bloomberg
Haru Invest suspends withdrawals
The South Korean yield platform Haru Invest abruptly suspended withdrawals and deposits on June 13. They wrote in a blog post that they were experiencing "a certain issue" with an unnamed partner, later announcing that "we have discovered through our internal inspection process that certain information provided by a consignment operator was suspected to be false."
The following day, the company named the partner as B&S Holdings (formerly Aventus), and announced that they were taking legal action against the company for filing falsified management reports.
Haru Invest advertised APR in the double digits.
On June 22, Haru laid off 100 employees. Haru explained in a blog post: "after much consideration, it comes with a heavy heart to inform you that we will be minimizing the operations of Haru Invest and its affiliated companies to prevent further damages that are likely to be incurred". Haru's CEO told local media that Haru's offices were empty because employees were working from home for their own safety. After Haru halted withdrawals, they closed their office, and CoinDesk reported that "all company officials disappeared".
BKEX crypto exchange halts withdrawals due to money laundering investigation
The BKEX crypto exchange announced on May 29 that they would be suspending withdrawals, claiming it was related to a police investigation. "Recently, the platform users' funds were involved in 'money laundering' and BKEX is currently cooperating with the police to collect evidence, for which we will suspend withdrawals to cooperate with the work", they wrote in an announcement on their website.
The exchange offered no estimate of when withdrawals might be re-enabled.
Nigerian crypto trading app Patricia suffers multimillion dollar theft, freezes withdrawals
Patricia, a retail cryptocurrency trading app in Nigeria, froze withdrawals after revealing that they had suffered a ₦2 billion hack. According to the outlet TechCabal, despite announcing the hack in May 2023, the incident actually occurred in January 2022, but Patricia had managed to hide it up until that point.
The stolen ₦2 billion would have been worth around US$4.8 million based on the value of the Naira at the time of the theft.
OKX suddenly drastically limits withdrawals for users who haven't completed KYC
As regulatory groups have started to pay more attention to crypto platforms, it hasn't been terribly unusual to see them tighten their identification requirements — particularly for customers engaging in high-value transactions. However, the Seychelles-based OKX exchange suddenly and without warning implemented a $5,000 total withdrawal limit for users of its crypto exchange that hadn't provided detailed identification (KYC), leaving some users who were unwilling to provide such identification with large sums of crypto assets trapped on the exchange. Previously, users who had submitted only the base level of identification were able to deposit or withdraw $50,000 per day. These users weren't notified of the change, even when they deposited funds, and only discovered the new limit when they went to withdraw or heard about it on social media.
It's not clear when precisely the change went into effect, but reports of the limitation began appearing in April 2023.