Employees of a Bitcoin exchange that stopped withdrawals in November are under threat. New reports report that aggrieved investors raided the company’s addresses.
Investors of bankrupt Bitcoin exchange attack employees
Cryptocurrency exchange Atom Asset Exchange (AAX), founded in 2018, suspended all withdrawals on November 13, 2022. The exchange has now reportedly raided the offices of its users in Nigeria in Lagos and started attacking employees. The incident occurred just days after the Nigerian crypto and Blockchain advocacy group asked him to refrain from doing so. Meanwhile, AAX’s former vice president said in a tweet that “the brand is gone now and trust has been broken”.
Local reports say a group of aggrieved Nigerian investors raided the exchange’s offices in Lagos. The enraged crowd is demanding the removal of the freeze on withdrawals, which came into effect on 12 November.
Allegedly, the Nigerian Blockchain Technology Association (SIBAN) managed to thwart a previously planned attack. The advocacy group also revealed that senior executives of the Hong Kong-based crypto exchange have stopped communicating with their Nigeria-based employees. SIBAN tried to prevent attacks on AAX in its public announcement dated 28 November:
We discourage any user or investor who is dissatisfied or angry about harassing or victimizing the AAX Country Manager (Nigeria), other local staff and AAX ambassadors nationwide. These individuals face the same situation as disgruntled users and investors.
AAX users were unaware of the bankruptcy
Meanwhile, the advocacy group reminded the exchange of its obligations in a message to AAX and its founders. He also suggested some steps AAX and Nigerian workers should take to regain public trust:
If protecting users is AAX’s top priority, as it boasted in its public announcement, AAX must take immediate steps to close the gaps by bridging communication between it and its local staff in Nigeria on the one hand, and AAX and its Nigerian users on the other.
In its latest update (November 18), AAX told users there were “many new developments”. However, he noted that he needed “more time to answer the many questions in the community.” The exchange says it will release more updates through the official channel for general announcements and updates. However, it had last released new updates on November 28.
Dear all, it’s true I have resigned from AAX. I did fight for the community but none of the initiatives we came up with were accepted. Any role I had left for communication became hollow.
1/4
— ₿en Caselin HODL (@BenCaselin) November 28, 2022
The sudden resignation of Ben Caselin, vice president of the crypto platform, completely destroys investor confidence. The fact that he said “the brand no longer exists” in his statements made users even more angry. This sparked speculation that the crypto exchange might not be able to resume operations anytime soon. As we reported as Kriptokoin.com, FTX announced its bankruptcy on November 11th.
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