Crypto

Zipmex Allows for Altcoin Withdrawals, Sheds Light on Babel Situation

Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Zipmex announced that it will release unaffected digital assets Cardano’s ADA, Solana (SOL) and Ripple’s XRP into its users’ Trade Wallet from 2 August onwards.

Tokens in Z Wallet will be debited and the corresponding amount will be credited back into the users’ Trade Wallet and no user action is required.

Once the tokens in the Trade Wallet are available, they may withdraw as per usual.

So far, Zipmex has already released SOL into its users’ Trade Wallet and will begin releasing XRP on 4 August and ADA on 9 August.

Customers can follow the official opening schedule of each coin via Zipmex’s website and all other official channels.

Zipmex said in a statement,

“We know it’s a small step, but it’s a step in the right direction. We realize many users will still have some BTC, ETH, and stable coins remaining in Z Wallet. We are working to ensure that we are in full compliance as we start to release some of these tokens into your Trade Wallet starting in the middle of August.

However, the entire Zipmex Team knows and understands that this incident has created significant inconvenience, doubt and uncertainty. We are committed to resuming all services on the Zipmex platform ASAP and to rebuild confidence and alleviate customer concerns.”

When markets started to turn, Zipmex had started to withdraw its funds from deposit partners. However, in the case of crypto lender Celsius, Zipmex was informed on the 13 June 2022 that withdrawals were paused.

Celsius subsequently declared bankruptcy so Zipmex wrote off its US$5 million deposit and absorbed it through its own balance sheet.

Parallelly, Zipmex’s deployment partner, Hong Kong-based crypto lender Babel Finance ran into liquidity issues.

This situation prompted Zipmex to report its situation to the Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with information about its deposits with Babel Finance and Celsius.

Zipmex was also forced to temporarily halt transfers between Z Wallet and Trade wallet.

The firm stressed that its decision to deposit funds with both Babel Finance and Celsius was made after extensive due diligence was performed.

Celsius Network had raised US$864 million in valuing the company at US$3.5 billion at the end of 2021 while Babel Finance raised over US$80 million in a Series B funding round in May 2022, bringing their total value to US$2 billion.