LibertyBit, a bitcoin exchange registered in Canada has announced its temporary closure. It says that this has come as a result of bank account closures and fraudulent account activity. The exchange had been acclaimed by Reddit users for use of the Google Authenticator for two-factor authentication to increase security. Ultimately, this has not helped the business remain trouble free.
The exchange accepted transactions in both US and Canadian dollars. The latter currency, of course, benefited from Canada’s Interac e-Transfer system that allows funds to be transferred by email. LibertyBit supported both deposits and withdrawals via the Email Interact system. This is in contrast to the other Canadian exchange, Virtex, which offered only withdrawals via the Interac system.
LibertyBit’s home page now redirects visitors to a maintenance page with the following text:
Dear Friends,
It is with great regret that we have decided to temporarily suspend operations due to bank account closure and a surge of fraudulent transactions. The effects have been two-fold: 1) Inflicting monetary losses on the company and 2) Damaging our primary banking relationships. These circumstances make it infeasible to continue operating the service without significant changes to our transfer system and identification measures. We feel it is our responsibility to pause operations now rather than risk any customer funds becoming vulnerable. We will be working in the coming weeks with partners and our legal counsel to overcome these obstacles and implement new measures to prevent these types of setbacks in the future.
Please be aware that all CAD, USD, and BTC funds are secure. Users are free to login and withdraw their funds through our system. However, given the anticipated volume, currency-processing times will take longer than usual and BTC will need to be transferred from cold storage. Therefore, please anticipate the following timeline for withdrawals:
- CAD: 2-10 Business Days
- USD: 2-10 Business Days
- BTC: 1-3 Days
While email INTERAC is no longer available, direct deposit will be offered to all users. Also, all currently open orders will be cancelled and those funds will become available.
These last six months have been a wild ride. We’ve had an incredible opportunity to take part in the Bitcoin revolution and help thousands of new and experienced users trade more easily. A big thank you to everyone who has supported us, pushed us, and given us valuable suggestions to make this service even better. Bringing Libertybit to life has been our passion for the last year, and it’s been an honor to offer this service to all of you.
Thank you again for all your support. We welcome your thoughts and suggestions for the future of Libertybit, and look forward to serving you all again soon.
Sincerely,
Paul Szczesny
Founder and CEO