$47M in BTC leaves OKEx in a single block as withdrawals resume

Users of crypto exchange OKEx withdrew 2,822 bitcoins as soon as the platform reactivated withdrawals.

According to a tweet published on Nov. 26 by crypto data firm CryptoQuant, nearly $47 million in BTC (as of press time) left the OKEx reserves in transactions included in a single block mined as it opened—number 658,728, mined at 08:12 UTC.

CryptoQuant’s chief operating officer Mason Jang pointed out that this move decreased OKEx’s reserves from 101,686 BTC to 98,821 BTC with 54 accounts withdrawing their funds, a decrease of more than 2.8%. Interestingly, he also pointed out that 446 of the Bitcoins withdrawn were moved to competing crypto exchange Binance.

Presumably, traders were afraid that the funds were not safe with the exchange or just decided to bring their money elsewhere after being unable to access them for nearly six weeks.

This movement may remind some of the recent bitcoin exodus from the BitMEX exchange after four top executives including CEO Arthur Hayes were indicted by the U.S. Justice Department. But in that case the users pulled as much as $340 million worth of cryptocurrency from the platform—nearly one-fifth of all the funds stored in the company’s wallets.

As Modern Consensus reported in on Oct. 16, OKEx suspended cryptocurrency withdrawals because one of its private key holders was co-operating with an investigation by Chinese authorities. The company re-enabled crypto asset withdrawals today as it promised on Nov. 18. At the time of the suspension, the firm reassured that its customers’ assets remain secure, and added:

“In order to act in the best interests of customers and deliver exceptional long-time customer service, we have decided to suspend digital assets/cryptocurrencies withdrawals… We assure [you] that OKEx’s other functions remain normal and stable.”  

Bitcoin’s price recently saw a major downward price movement, spiraling downward by about $3,000 and reaching a low of $16,300 and then recovering to just over $17,000. Still, while many may be tempted to believe that the OKEx withdrawal and possible consequent dump was the culprit, this theory was dismissed as the price had fallen shortly before the exchange resumed withdrawals—and in was line with some analysts’ predictions of a retrenchment.