Warning of account closure at Bitwala / Nuri / Solarisbank

I herby warn everyone from opening and using an account at Nuri.com (ex Bitwala). I'm a user of their product since the early days. They have always delivered a great product, building a bridge between fiat and crypto (especially Bitcoin).

Bitwala recently re-named themselves to Nuri and partnered with Solaris Bank to and Celsius to provide an interest account for Bitcoin and a standard bank account with a bridge to a Bitcoin and Ethereum wallet.

So far so good. A few days after renaming Bitwala to Nuri I received an email with tons of questions, here are some of them:

Do you use this account as a main account or do you plan to do so in the future?• Are there persons other than yourself who got access to this account?• Which occupation do you have and what is your employment relationship (e.g. employed, self-employed, freelancer, student, without employment)?• How high is your monthly disposable income?• How would you estimate your crypto knowledge? (expert/good knowledge/interested/beginner)• When did you first obtain cryptocurrencies?Crypto exchange purchase (only crypto-> EUR):• What is the purpose of the following transaction/s?• What is the relationship between you and the counterparty?• Please provide us with suitable proof of the origin of the crypto values ​​from the below Crypto-EUR exchange available (trading history, screenshots of trading platforms, etc.).

which I found extremely intimidating and privacy concerning. Although I was not comfortable with answering those questions, I did. After a week I received this email:

​

Dear xxx,

We regret to inform you that we hereby terminate our business relationship with you with immediate effect pursuant to §16 of our Terms of Service and §5 (2) of Supplementary Agreement on the Crypto Wallets of our Terms of Service.

Also, we hereby inform you that our Partner Solarisbank AG (“Solarisbank”) terminates the business relationship between you and Solarisbank based on Section 19 paragraph 3 of Solarisbank's General Terms and Conditions (GTC) for reasonable cause with immediate effect. Your banking connection will be cancelled and closed with immediate effect.

In addition, we hereby inform you that our partner Solaris Digital Assets GmbH (“SDA”) also terminates the entire business relationship between you and SDA for reasonable cause with immediate effect pursuant to section 22.3 of SDA’s Conditions for Crypto Custody Services.

At the same time, we restrict access to the Nuri apps in accordance with §16 of our Terms of Service and §5 (2) of Supplementary Agreement on the Crypto Wallets of our Terms of Service.

Declaration by Solarisbank

Any credit balances held on your account will be returned to you. To retrieve the remaining fiat funds, please send a signed copy of the attached payment request to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]), confirming to which account - if permitted - you would like us to transfer the remaining credit to.

Your remaining available balance is €XXX - DE63110101002331480641

Please note that if your payment request is not received within the first month of account closure, solarisBank reserves the right to collect a monthly expense allowance of EUR 6.50 from your remaining balance.

You can retrieve the content of your BTC wallet by recovering your wallet. Please find a link showing how to do this provided here.

You can withdraw the outstanding Ethereum amount to an external wallet provider. The external wallet provider you choose will be able to advise you on how to complete this process.

Respectfully,

Solarisbank Customer Support

Declaration by Solaris Digital Assets

In the case that your account is holding any Digital Assets balances, you will be provided with the option to withdraw any such balance(s) via the name of partner Nuri app within 30 days from today. After this period, you will no longer have access to your account to carry out such actions. We recommend that you also inform relevant parties from which you expect any incoming transfers about the closure.

Respectfully,

Solaris Digital Assets Customer Support

We regret that the accounts must be closed and that we also have to terminate our business relationship with you. Should you have any further questions or need assistance, please let us know.

Best regards,

Nuri Team

Account Executive

Attachment(s)EN_SEPA.pdf

Don't trust banks.

I want to add an additional warning regarding their interest account (or any other interest account like Blockfi, Celcius and co.).

Terms of service of Bitwala (now NURI):

Special risk factors for the Crypto Interest Account

Investing cryptocurrencies via the Crypto Interest Account is associated with significant risks. The risks described below can occur individually or cumulatively. For the customer ("investor") there is the risk of total loss. The order in which the risks are presented does not provide any indication of the materiality of the risks, either in terms of their probability of occurrence or in terms of their impact on the investor and his claims.

The further risk information on cryptocurrencies in § 8 of our General Terms and Conditions (https://www.bitwala.com/de/terms-of-service/) must be observed.

1. No deposit insurance

There is no statutory or voluntary deposit insurance for the cryptocurrencies invested via the Crypto Interest Account. In the event of a default by Celsius Network Limited (Celsius Network), no payments will be made to the investors by third parties (e.g. a deposit protection fund (“Einlagensicherungsfonds”). Bitwala GmbH ("Bitwala" or "we") also does not provide compensation in the event of loss of the cryptocurrencies used and does not accept any other securities.

2. Bankruptcy of Celsius Network

The investors bear the full risk of the bankruptcy of Celsius Network. Celsius Network is the sole debtor of the investors' claims to the agreed income and repayment of the amount of cryptocurrencies used. Whether Celsius Network will be able to fulfil the due claims of the investors in the future depends solely on the success of its business activities. If Celsius Network becomes illiquid (e.g. in the event of bankruptcy), the investor will suffer a total loss of his investment as well as any income already earned but not yet disbursed.

3. No participation, co-determination or control rights

Investors have no rights of participation, co-determination or control with regard to the business activities and business strategy of Celsius Network. Investors cannot verify whether Celsius Network conducts business activities that will enable it to service the claims of investors from the Crypto Interest Account in the future. The business activities carried out by Celsius Network may result in further risks for investors. As investors do not know the business activities of Celsius Network in detail, they are not in a position to verify these potential risks. Celsius Network could make decisions that could have an impact on the investors. The investors have no possibility to influence the business activities of Celsius Network. This also applies to the use of the cryptocurrencies provided.

4. No state supervision

Celsius Network is registered as a Money Service Business ("MSB") with the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a unit within the US Department of the Treasury that collects and analyses information on financial transactions in order to combat national and international money laundering, terrorist financing and other financial crimes. Nevertheless, Celsius Network and its business activities are not subject to extensive government supervision. In particular, there is no guarantee that registration with FinCEN will meet German standards of comparable governmental supervision. There is therefore no state or other protection for investors against misuse of the cryptocurrencies provided.

5. Application of foreign law and prosecution abroad

The legal relationship between the investor and Celsius Network is governed by US law / the law of the United Kingdom. Investors may not be aware of the law and may therefore not be able to exercise their legal position under the respective laws vis-à-vis Celsius Network or not exercise it properly. Claims of investors against Celsius Network must be asserted in foreign courts. For investors this may mean higher costs and difficulties in enforcing their claims.

6. Price and earnings volatility

The investor bears the risk of exchange rate volatilities with regard to the cryptocurrencies provided by him. The price of cryptocurrencies on corresponding trading platforms can be subject to high volatility. The investor has a claim against Celsius Network for repayment of the amount of cryptocurrencies provided by him plus the agreed income. This entails the risk that the cryptocurrencies provided by the investor may have a lower value at the time of repayment than at the time of transfer to Celsius Network.

The interest rate for calculating the returns on the cryptocurrencies provided is subject to weekly changes by Celsius Network. Medium- or long-term planning with regard to the amount of income is therefore not possible. For the investor, there is the risk that the interest rate will decrease after the cryptocurrencies have been transferred to Celsius Network.

7. Tax risks

The current tax treatment of the income has not been conclusively clarified and may also depend on the individual tax treatment of the respective investor. It cannot be ruled out that the tax authorities and courts may adjust or change previous tax assessments on the treatment of income with cryptocurrencies. It is also not clear whether the previously applicable principles for the tax treatment of trading in crypto-currencies can be applied to income from the Crypto Interest Account.

Note:Bitwala does not provide investment advice to the client. Bitwala does not verify whether the Crypto Interest Account is a suitable investment for investors in view of their personal investment objectives and financial circumstances. Bitwala also does not provide any corresponding recommendations. Bitwala also does not conduct a reasonable assessment as to whether the Crypto Interest Account is appropriate in view of the knowledge and experience of the investor.

How this posts stops a few people of opening an account with Bitwala / Nuri in the first place. Take care everyone, this is why we are all in Bitcoin and Blockchain!