The first case of money laundering transformation in the exchange industry: BITGIN to delist individual accounts and focus on corporate accounts.
In the investigation of the “88 Hall” money laundering case, Taiwan’s judicial department revealed that “money laundering godfather” Tu Cheng-wen used a jewelry store as a cover to assist gambling and telecommunications fraud groups in money laundering activities through a cryptocurrency exchange. In November 2023, Chang Yu-ting, the operating director of the cryptocurrency exchange “Bitgin”, was also detained. In 2024, Bitgin announced that it will no longer serve individual accounts and will transform into an exchange exclusively for corporate accounts, setting the first precedent in Taiwan for a transformation to serve only corporate accounts.
Content:
Bitgin’s Transformation Announcement: Exclusive Service for Corporate Accounts, No Longer Accepting Individual Deposits
Bitgin Strengthens Scrutiny on Specific Individual Accounts
Withdrawal Limit for General Individual Accounts on Bitgin Polygon
Bitgin’s Individual Services to Close
Bitgin has previously expressed active cooperation with the investigation regarding the case.
Bitgin announced that, after careful consideration, it will transform into a cryptocurrency exchange specializing in serving corporate clients. It is committed to providing more professional and customized services to corporate customers.
Bitgin announced that for individual accounts undergoing “enhanced scrutiny,” account transactions, withdrawals, and login functions will be temporarily disabled. These functions will be reopened after the enhanced scrutiny is completed in order to provide the withdrawal of remaining assets.
It is speculated that this move may be in response to the investigation of specific high-risk accounts.
Bitgin announced that general individual accounts can withdraw their New Taiwan Dollars and cryptocurrency assets on the platform through the Bitgin website or app before January 31, 2024. However, when withdrawing Tether (USDT), only withdrawals on the Polygon network will be supported, and withdrawal requests on other types of chains will be automatically rejected by the system.
Bitgin announced that as of February 1, 2024, 12:00 AM, a snapshot of all user balances will be taken and the subsequent withdrawal methods will be notified through email.
Based on legal requirements, after the account is closed, Bitgin is obligated to retain customer personal information for five years before deletion.
In November 2023, Chain News interviewed Daniel, the CEO of Bitgin Technology, who stated that the operating director, Jasmine, was under investigation by the judicial department last week due to a transaction between Bitgin and a corporate account at the end of 2021. Bitgin wants to make it clear that since March 2022, when KGI Bank notified that the transaction counterparty may be involved in money laundering activities, immediate action has been taken to stop all transactions with the corporate account and actively report the transaction records during that period to the relevant authorities. Bitgin has unfortunately been involved in this case and is fully cooperating with the investigation, hoping to clarify the facts and prove its innocence as soon as possible.
Now it has announced the transformation to exclusively serve corporate accounts, and it is not difficult to imagine the impact of this incident on the company’s operations.
(Chasing the “88 Hall” Taiwan Money Laundering Godfather Network: Bitgin Operating Director Detained)
(Taiwan VASP Association Preparatory Team Responds to Member-Involved Case: Temporarily Not Participating in Operations, Clarifying the Presumption of Innocence)
88 Hall
Bitgin
Money laundering
Further Reading
Chasing the “88 Hall” Taiwan Money Laundering Godfather Network: Bitgin Operating Director Detained
Why Did the New Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office Refuse to Accept Over 6 Million USDT Confiscated Funds from the Main Suspect of the “88 Hall”?
