WEX (Formerly BTC-e) BTC Trading Prices at $9,000 Social Media Calls it a Scam

Relaunched BTC-e Exchange, WEX, Possibly Planning an Exit Scam As Twitter Users See It

Russian trading platform, formerly BTC-e, which was once sealed to extinction made a surprise entry into the crypto sphere as WEX.nz in September of 2017. After its relaunch, the exchange platform recently made headlines as many believe that a potential scam is in the works.

For clarification purposes, an exit scam is when a business collects funds from consumers and then disappears altogether. This has become very common within Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), where a business proposes a project and guarantees something in return, but upon collecting all the funds, leaves investors with nothing.

WEXNZ, the relaunched BTC-e exchange is trading #bitcoin up to $9000… It might be to attract people to deposit $btc wanting to arbitrage and then exit scam. Conveniently right before planned maintenance coming up. Then again, BTC-e is known for being sketchy.

h/t @kazonomics pic.twitter.com/Yvozjj3PvT

— Collin Crypto (@CollinCrypto) July 11, 2018

A Crypto-focused tweeter, Collin Crypto, pointed out earlier today that WEX.nz is trading Bitcoin [BTC] at a value of $9000. This comes of surprise given the fact that it only sits at a value of approximately USD$6,425. Collin Crypto views this as WEX.nz’s attempt to “attract people to deposit $btc wanting to arbitrage and then exit scam”. He also noted that this supposed strategy was done right before its “planned maintenance”.

Collin Crypto isn’t the only one to have spotted this outrage spread, as many others including the likes of Arbitrage.expert, Kazonomics and Vittorio have also made predictions and commentary as to what WEX.nz is preparing for.

https://twitter.com/arb_exp/status/1015602333168930818

I've been concerned by this too.

— Bott Signall (@Bott_Signall) July 11, 2018

Here are some commonly shared tweets:

https://twitter.com/kazonomics/status/1017058982781997056

uh oh pic.twitter.com/E4U6VpcAvx

— vittorio 😏 (@cryptovitto) July 11, 2018

WTF has happened on @WEXnz exchange??? 😮😮😮

Bitcoin to the moon!!! $BTC #BTC #Bullish 🚀🚀🚀 pic.twitter.com/e6AFVWBg8R

— Daniel Martínez [ ₿⚡️] ‏ (@DanUtopik) July 11, 2018

Meh, their USD just has poor transferability. USD/USDT prices fluctuated right in line with the BTC/USD move. Suspect someone with a lot of wex USD just decided to push it into bitcoin, and they didn't mind a 10-30% premium over spot rates.

— Ross (@phzix) July 11, 2018

Tether trading at $1.30 USDT/USD on Wex – a snapshot in history pic.twitter.com/C5nSK9i3kd

— CointraderGuy (@CointraderGuy) July 11, 2018

@kazonomics look at usdt/USD pair on that pic it's at $1.34

— Miyuru Fernando (@miyurufernando) July 11, 2018

Withdrawals of coins still works fine. Fiat withdrawal currently has a 20% fee. So the prices of their fiat are all wacky. I guess they have very little or no fiat. I suspect they will turn into a usdt exchange and no longer have fiat at all

— Jimbo (@Jimbobitz) July 11, 2018

& people are paying premium / taking a loss to get their money off of the exchange, which is pushing the prices even higher

— Chowrie Ree (@chowrie_ree) July 11, 2018

As for WEX.nz’s official announcement, it has been confirmed that a system maintenance will take place on the exchange. The team involved also shared that it will commence on July 12, 2018 at 10:00 AM UTC and will last for about two hours. During the maintenance, consumers will not be able to trade in any way possible, this includes any “withdrawals and other functions”.

Formerly known as BTC-e, the bitcoin exchange was seized by FBI in 2017 due to ongoing money laundering and illegal activities. As per The Verge’s report a year ago, the Operator of the exchange, Alexander Vinnik was charged with 21 counts of finance-related crimes. While the popular bitcoin exchange managed to relaunch itself as “WEX.nz”, their current, suspicious BTC prices and their previous actions have many taking cautious steps to avoid losing their money.

At the current time of writing this, WEX has the BTC /USD pair pegged at $8,393.98 while CoinMarketCap currently has it at $6,423.37. 

Could the rise in BTC price and WEX.nz’s system maintenance be a coincidence or was it a planned scam? One thing is for sure, it has the twitter-sphere buzzing about it.