Following the raid on Nexo’s Bulgarian offices, a digital lending platform, massive withdrawals occurred as of January 12, 2023. A real-time attestation snapshot of Nexo revealed that the company had 133,263 bitcoins on that day. As of January 13, 2023, Nexo’s certification indicates that the company currently holds 124,939 bitcoins and $157.21 million in bitcoins.
Clients Withdraw Over $157 Million Worth of Bitcoin in 24 Hours
Last year, a number of exchanges were put through withdrawal stress tests. Now, the same issues are being experienced by the crypto lending platform. On January 12, 2023, news broke that Nexo is being investigated by the Bulgarian Attorney General, with approximately 300 specialists from various agencies. The company is suspected of violating tax regulations, money laundering, and bypassing financial sanctions related to the Russian Federation.
Nexo immediately released a statement denying any wrongdoing and noting that the company adheres to “very strict anti-money laundering and know-your-customer policies.” Following the incident, a lot of withdrawals were reported as per the real-time attestation website. For example, on January 3, 2023, Nexo held around 134,203 bitcoins, worth approximately $2.5 billion at current BTC exchange rates. By January 12, 2023, the crypto lender’s BTC stash had dropped to 133,263 Bitcoin.
24 hours later on Friday, January 13, 2023, Nexo’s BTC reserves had decreased by 8,324 BTC, bringing it to the current level of 124.939 BTC. This amounts to the withdrawal of $157.21 million at current BTC exchange rate from the crypto lender’s Bitcoin cache. These withdrawals are seen on many other exchanges, which saw large-scale withdrawals within a short timeframe after the FTX crash; Binance, Kucoin?, and Crypto.com all experienced similar activity.
It is unclear what will happen to Nexo’s case in Bulgaria, but the withdrawal rate in the past 24 hours appears to suggest that clients are nervous. When The Block reporter Khatri Yogita spoke to the Nexus co-founder Antony Trenchev, the company stated that the withdrawals amounted to 2% of its Assets Under Management (AUM). “Nexo can confirm that all systems are up and running and everything is processed in real time as usual,” Trenchev told Khatri on Friday. “The activity is much smaller than after Celsius and after FTX,” added the Nexo executive.