Timeline of centralized exchange AAX halting withdrawals

This post serves as a record so that people do not forget and let them off the hook for fraud.

November 13:

• AAX stops allowing withdrawals due to a technical issue. Official statement.
• CTO claims it's a scheduled maintenance.
• They did not say what the issue was.
• They said it's not related to FTX.
• Withdrawals will be opened again in 7-10 days according to the official statement.
• They said they will provide daily updates. But so far, they've only provided 2 updates.

November 15:

• Official statement says they need more capital to handle withdrawals. They do not have enough assets to meet withdrawal requests.
• In order to re-open withdrawals, they're looking for capital injection from somewhere else.
• However, they keep saying that they shut down withdrawals due to a technical issue, rather than a financial issue.

November 19:

• Met with a lot of people to try to raise money. No update on whether any financial deal is immenent. Official statement.

November 25:

• 13 days since the exchange stopped withdrawals. 3 days past the deadline they gave themselves to re-open withdrawals.
• Excuses given by AAX on why withdrawals stopped:

1. Scheduled maintenance which coincidentally happened with FTX collapse
2. Not enough funds to meet withdrawal request
3. Third party technical issue
4. Customer deposit records were impaired

It's quite clear that they were exposed to FTX, either directly or indirectly. AAX lied. Their lies weren't even coordinated. CTO said it was due to a scheduled maintenance (for 7-10 days!?). Official statements gave 3 different excuses.

Good luck for those affected. If they ever open up withdrawals, take your money out asap. It's clear that they can't be trusted.

My personal guess is that they took user deposits and invested in FTX or other places, had a bank run, can't meet withdrawal requests, halted withdrawals to let insiders, friends, big whales withdrawal first. There's also no guarantee that the executives didn't simply stole user funds and deposited into their own bank accounts or bought lambos. They're going around begging for a bailout now. But the most likely scenario is that they will file bankruptcy after insiders, friends, whales withdraw.