JPEX crypto trade has been named in not less than 83 complaints to the Hong Kong police as of Friday, the South China Morning Put up reported on Sept. 16. The complaints contain cryptocurrencies value $4.3 million, the report famous.
Raymond Siu Chak-yee, commissioner of police, disclosed on Saturday that the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Fee (SFC) filed an official police report in opposition to JPEX two days in the past. He added that the police’s industrial crime bureau is investigating the matter.
SFC calls out JPEX’s ‘suspicious options’
The surge in complaints comes after the SFC issued a assertion on Sept. 13, warning Hong Kong customers that JPEX is working with out a license. JPEX was positioned on the SFC’s Alert Listing on July 8, 2022, for looking for Hong Kong buyers with out a license.
In its current assertion, the SFC identified a number of duplicitous and deceptive claims and practices of the trade. For example, the SFC famous that JPEX’s claims of being “licensed” by abroad regulators to function a crypto buying and selling platform are “not true.”
On its web site, JPEX claims that its working headquarters are in Dubai and that beneath the supervision of the Digital Property Regulatory Authority of Dubai (VARA), its buying and selling system “has stricter regulatory requirements and extra transparency and openness in cross-border transactions.” Nonetheless, JPEX just isn’t on VARA’s public record of licensed digital belongings service suppliers, the SFC famous.
The SFC additionally identified the very excessive returns provided by JPEX for some merchandise. For example, on the time of writing, JPEX provided a 21% annual proportion yield for Ethereum (ETH), 20% for Bitcoin (BTC), and 19% for USD Coin (USDC). Furthermore, JPEX’s yield-generating merchandise like ‘Earn,’ and ‘Financial savings’ are usually not allowed beneath the Hong Kong crypto regulatory regime.
The regulator additionally mentioned JPEX has made deceptive and false claims about receiving funding from a Hong Kong-listed firm. The fee requested key opinion leaders to cease selling JPEX and making false claims about JPEX having utilized for a crypto license in Hong Kong.
Consumer complaints
Because the SFC famous in its assertion, a number of retail buyers have reported being unable to withdraw their belongings from JPEX or discovered their balances decreased or altered.
In line with the SCMP report, a person shared a screenshot in a Telegram group devoted to JPEX-related complaints. The screenshot depicted a withdrawal request for 1,000 Tether (USDT) tokens made on Saturday afternoon. Nonetheless, the withdrawal solely resulted in 25 USDT being obtained, with the remaining quantity being withheld by the trade beneath the label of “processing payment.”
The administrator of the Telegram group instructed SCMP that he has obtained not less than 200 “critical” complaints involving over $10 million in crypto.
JPEX says it’ll “not collapse”
In response to the SFC assertion, JPEX accused the company of unfairly undermining the trade, since it’s within the “preparation part” and is but to submit its license utility. The trade famous that the SFC’s assertion,
“…may be seen as exerting undue strain on our platform, reflecting an absence of dedication to the true implementation of Internet 3.0 insurance policies within the cryptocurrency trade. The unfair suppression by the SFC has led us to contemplate withdrawing our license utility within the Hong Kong area and regulate our future coverage growth accordingly.”
JPEX added that the SFC ought to “bear full accountability for undermining the prospects” of crypto growth in Hong Kong.
On Sept. 14, attendees of Token2049 occasion in Singapore reported that JPEX workers had deserted their sales space on the second day of the occasion. This was even if the trade claimed on Wednesday that it was “actively collaborating” within the occasion.
On Thursday, the trade adjusted the withdrawal payment for USDT in mild of the SFC’s feedback. JPEX mentioned that it has arrange a particular process power to find out future instructions and changes, and that it’ll enhance the withdrawal restrict within the coming days.
One person posted a screenshot on X depicting that the withdrawal restrict for USDT was set at 1,000 USDT whereas the withdrawal payment was set at 999 USDT.
On Sept. 15, JPEX suspended all capabilities of the platform sport foyer to adjust to regulatory norms. it added:
“We consider that the platform won’t collapse and can proceed to function steadily.”
The submit Hong Kong police obtained over 80 complaints in opposition to JPEX crypto trade appeared first on CryptoSlate.
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