CoinFLEX to begin arbitration for $84 million recovery and open limited withdrawals

Published at: July 11, 2022

Crypto investment platform CoinFLEX is moving forward with its plan to reclaim $84 million in funds by starting arbitration procedures in Hong Kong against an individual account holder.

Co-founders Sudhu Arumugam and Mark Lamb acknowledged in their Saturday announcement that the judgment would provide access to the individual’s “worldwide assets” and that their lawyers were “very confident” they could enforce the award:

“We have commenced arbitration in HKIAC for the recovery of this $84m as the individual had a legal obligation under the agreement to pay and has refused to do so.”

The firm, however, noted the process could take 12 months to get a judgment in Hong Kong.

“Thereafter, we will be able to enforce that judgment against his worldwide assets,” it added.

Though the “large individual customer” was not named in the Saturday announcement, Lamb has previously publicly stated that Bitcoin Cash (BCH) proponent Roger Ver was the defaulting customer in question.

Ver, however, has denied that he owes any money to the firm. He fired back at the rumors by stating that an unnamed counterparty owes him “a substantial sum of money.”

In the most recent update, Arumugam and Lamb said that the individual was “wasting time” by promising to replenish his account with funds that never arrived.

They added that liquidating his positions created significant slippage, which has increased the sum the firm says he owes. Initial estimates put the outstanding sum at $47 million, but that amount was increased to $84 million after liquidating his FLEX token positions.

FLEX is the native token of the CoinFLEX platform:

“Unfortunately, this customer failed to honor his obligations pursuant to this written agreement. Our lawyers believe that we have a very strong case and have commenced legal actions to recover debts owed to us pursuant to this agreement.”

Limited withdrawals soon?

Amid the drama between CoinFLEX and the individual whale depositor, withdrawals have been suspended since June 23. Lamb said he hoped to have them back up for users by the beginning of July.

Arumugam and Lamb stated that they now have plans to create “temporary liquidity for CoinFLEX depositors” by initially making 10% of their account balances available for withdrawal.

No date has been set for this to take place, but the duo expect withdrawals to take a week or less.

CoinFLEX has been working on ways to make up for the shortfall in funds left by the whale investor’s account.

The firm indicated at the end of June that in addition to liquidating accounts and pursuing legal action, part of its fund’s recovery plan involved issuing 47 million Recovery Value USD (rvUSD) tokens, which can be bought for $1.00 each. It may also offer some depositors the option to roll their deposits into equity in the company.

The firm is in “close discussions” with an unnamed large United States exchange to enter into a partnership that could help boost CoinFLEX’s viability.

The price of FLEX fell 71% on Saturday following the announcement to $0.27. It is currently trading at $0.30, according to CoinGecko.