A crypto trader reported that his own mother has fallen victim to the misconducts of HitBTC, one of the first exchanges in the crypto world.
Cryptocurrency analyst and trader Sicarious expressed in a series of Twitter posts his aversion for the HitBTC exchange, which locked his mother of sixty-five-years out of her cryptocurrency account for more three months.
Sicarious became involved in the cryptocurrency industry in its early stages, getting a position in Bitcoin in December 2013. Regarding his mother’s involvement in the industry, he mentioned that she manifested interest in Bitcoin when its price was $250, first starting to participate in the market when Bitcoin reached the $350 value.
The trader stated that even though she sent all the necessary documents for “EVERY KYC hoop they’ve thrown at her,” her account was still frozen by HitBTC. His response to this predicament was expressed in the following post:
“Her account is still locked, & after submitting a driver’s ID, passport, bank statements, utility bills, txids & screenshots, she had a skype convo with them this morning. This is their response. Her acc. has been frozen for 3 months… Apparently, HitBTC thinks that a 65-year-old woman asking her son for help when a sketchy-ass exchange steals her money means she’s a front for money launders.”
He then accused the exchange of carelessly using consumer funds which brought the company to the brink of insolvency, even going so far as to mockingly inquire if they “get a kick out of screwing over innocent grandmas.”
Sicarious then went on to inform the exchange in question aware of the fact that his mom was in the process of filing complaints with the U.S. CFTC, and will be pursuing legal guidance for further action.
The crypto personality also urged users to retweet and respond to the Twitter tirade in an effort to bring more exposure to the case. Jake Chervinsky, an American lawyer active that works in crypto- related case, answer back to Sicarious’s posts, mentioning that crypto can be employed to “disintermediate” egotistical and malevolent third parties.
“Be careful out there . . . some day we’ll use crypto to disintermediate self-interested & malicious third parties, but in these early days, we have to watch for bad actors & look out for each other.
Remember: your keys, your coins — not your keys, not your coins. DEX, please,” tweeted Jake Chervinsky.
Sicarious tweeted in reply:
“I rarely ask for such, but for once I’m going to ask something from my 50k followers. If you could retweet the thread and share any similar issues you’ve had with @hitbtc, I would greatly appreciate it.”
It is yet unknown just how much is actually frozen in the locked account, but it is quite possible that it isn’t a small amount we’re talking about here, as the trader was visibly livid at how customer support treated his mother.