On August 8, the author of the Telegram channel "Tears of Satoshi" Rafael Manvelyan announced the blocking of his account on the OKX cryptocurrency exchange and attributed this to a sharp change in the platform's policy towards users from the CIS. In a response comment, the CEO of the company, Star Xu, spoke about violations on the part of the client.
According to Manvelyan, he has been an active user of OKX since 2019 — all this time the exchange has been "working honestly and stably." However, since May 2024, he noticed that the policy of the platform and its head personally "changed dramatically to a radical one" in relation to clients from the CIS.
"My account is blocked, as well as the referral database that has been accumulated over the years. Influencers recommending the OKX exchange may incur not only financial but also reputational risks," Manvelyan wrote.
He urged users from the CIS countries to "urgently withdraw all funds from the OKH and abandon its use for an indefinite period."
"Otherwise, [they] run the risk of having their accounts suddenly blocked, funds frozen, and any assets lost," the trader pointed out.
OKX CEO commented on the situation, stating that the blocking and denial of further service affected Manvelyan personally due to his violation of sanctions control policies. He denied accusations of making money by freezing accounts or embezzling user funds.
Dear “Satoshi Friends”, I really understand your frustration and feel so sorry about it. But we need to tell the facts to the community, misleading the public with wrong information is not good.
As we talk in the private chat, your account violated our sanction control policy… https://t.co/HWqoRLVih9
"Several large transactions related to authorized exchanges or DeFi protocols were carried out on the account. We gave [Manvelian] the opportunity to withdraw all funds before the account was blocked. [He], in turn, requested the creation of a new account and the transfer of his data from the old account to the new one. Unfortunately, we cannot do this, as it would be a violation of the exchange's compliance policy and working conditions," Xu wrote on his X account.
The head of the exchange noted that compliance with the current international sanctions rules is prescribed in the terms of customer service. In particular, the trading platform does not work with sanctioned users or organizations.
"If our control systems record transactions related to authorized exchanges or DeFi protocols such as Garantex or Tornado Cash, then our compliance team can restrict the account that violated the terms of service," Xu noted.
According to him, clients operating within the framework of the law never face such restrictive measures.
In a comment to ForkLog, OKX representatives stressed that the statements spread on social networks about the restriction of the platform's operation in the CIS region and the Russian Federation in particular are baseless.
"The platform is working normally, products and services are available without restrictions," they said.
According to them, OKX does not block user accounts unreasonably. Restrictive measures are introduced only in case of detected violations.
"We are building an exchange that complies with international laws, and we expect that our users, partners, and the cryptocurrency community also adhere to accepted global financial norms," the representatives of the platform added.
Recall that in August 2023, OKX updated the rules of P2P trading for Russian users and closed transactions with the ruble. At the same time, trading in other fiat currencies is still available to users from the Russian Federation.