On Wednesday, the Singaporean exchange Zipmex announced it was halting customer withdrawals of funds due to volatile market conditions. The firm bills itself as Asia's leading digital assets exchange, mainly in Singapore, Australia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Learn how smart money is playing the game of criptocurrency.
Due to a combination of circumstances beyond our control, including volatile market conditions, and the resulting financial difficulties of our key business partners, we will be suspending withdrawals until further notice, according to Zipmex.
Financial contagion stemming from its exposure to Babel Finance and the Celsius Network, a beleaguered criptocurrency lender that is undergoing financial restructuring after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy is one of the main factors.
The company said that trading on its platform would be disabled until further notice, and that customer security was the number one priority. In the last 24 hours, CoinMarketCap has logged $6.9 million worth of trading volume on the platform.
The move surprised industry players as they announced expansion plans for its Southeast Asian market and even planned to add Vietnam to its list of countries. In March, Zipmex had raised $52 million in Series B funding.
Zipmex is one of the biggest players in Southeast Asia's crypto landscape, representing nearly one-quarter of Thailand's total revenue in the market, serving almost 1.7 million investors.
The partnership with Polygon Studios was expected to draw in more new customers when the company ventured into the Asian metaverse.
The company offers 10% returns on USDC stable coins and 6% onBitcoins by claiming that customers who deposit funds can get up to 10% in rewards each year.