Onchain Data Shows FTX US Paused ETH Withdrawals for 2 Hours, Users Complain of Withdrawal Errors
After FTX International’s parent firm West Realm Shires Services filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware, users noticed that FTX US was included in the bankruptcy filings. On the U.S. exchange’s website, the firm notes that “trading may be halted on FTX US in a few days,” but the company’s ethereum wallet stopped processing transactions at 12:20 p.m. (ET) on Friday. Ethereum and ERC20 withdrawals resumed again roughly two hours later at 2:15 p.m. in the afternoon.
FTX US’s Lights Start to Flicker — U.S. Crypto Exchange Warns Trading Will be Halted in Days
On Friday, at 9:14 a.m. (ET), West Realm Shires Services, the parent company of FTX International announced that the firm, Alameda Research, and approximately 130 additional affiliated companies are seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In addition to FTX International and Alameda, FTX US was included in the bankruptcy filings even though FTX’s CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) said the day before that FTX US was a separate entity.
The bankruptcy filing reveals that FTX’s and Alameda’s liabilities range from $10 billion to $50 billion. Users were not too pleased to see that FTX US was included in the bankruptcy proceedings. Furthermore, the FTX US web portal announces that trading may be halted soon. “Trading may be halted on FTX US in a few days,” the website update says. “Please close down any positions you want to close down. Withdrawals are and will remain open. We will give updates as we have them.”
Message on the FTX US website.
Onchain data from a known FTX US ethereum address shows the wallet stopped processing transactions since 12:20 p.m. (ET) on Friday. The address was processing transactions up until the last transaction of 5,200,000 SHIB left the wallet. The wallet started to see withdrawals resume again at around 2:15 p.m., according to blockchain explorer data.
FTX’s website says still says “withdrawals are and will remain open,” despite the lack of onchain movement. Well before the last onchain transaction, on Nov. 10, 2022, at 11:29 p.m. (ET), FTX International mentioned “ETH withdrawals will resume shortly” in regard to FTX US withdrawals.
There’s no mention of any withdrawal problems from FTX US’s Twitter account or the main site, but users have been complaining about withdrawal issues since Nov. 8, 2022. On that day, one individual wrote: “Anyone having trouble withdrawing BTC from FTX US? My withdrawal has been stuck on ‘request’ for 6 hours. Please give me feedback.” At 10:27 a.m. on Friday, another individual wrote that they continued to get an error message while attempting to withdraw.
“Unable to withdrawal via FTX US, even though I’m logged in via the website, can’t find any instance of this error message anywhere,” the user said.