For more than two years, thousands of investors in India have been facing trouble withdrawing their own money from BitBNS, a major cryptocurrency exchange. Over the past 12 months, the exchange has locked funds of investors and halted all withdrawals, but are happily accepting deposits.
Despite large protests by investors against the exchange, their supposedly obscure operations have largely gone under the radar of Indian authorities, mainly due to an overall disdain of cryptocurrencies by India’s central bank- The RBI. In the wake of the recent WazirX exchange and subsequent suspension of customer funds, several investors are now wondering if WazirX is following the course of BitBNS.
The Crypto Times reached out to several victim investors of BitBNS who have been waiting for their funds withdrawal to initiate and found a story of deception, lack of transparency and outright unethical practices.
The Story of BitBNS
Established in 2017, BitBNS has been founded by Gaurav Dahake, Prashant Singh and Srikanth Sethumadhavan and operates under the company ‘Buyhatke Internet Private Limited’. The exchange boasts of pioneering p2p payment services in India and hosting over four million Indian users in the past seven years of their operations.
Currently, they have a trading volume of just about $1.25 million and list 122 coins, as per data by Coingecko.
Customers Facing Withdrawal Issues Since 2020
The customers of BitBNS have claimed that they have been facing issues in funds withdrawal from the exchange. Initially, the exchange owners had blamed a “minor technical glitch” as the reason behind delays in the withdrawal process. However, a probe into the workings of BitBNS show that they stand at the opposite end of transparency.
Since 2020, several thousands of BitBNS investors have been facing issues in withdrawing their own funds, and there is no clarity from the end of BitBNS. Harrowed customers have now taken to different social media platforms to express their anguish and frustration.
June 27, 2023: Day of Horror for BitBNS Investors
On June 27, morning in 2023, several investors of BitBNS woke up to find their entire portfolio amounting to a grand ‘zero’. Soon, BitBNS co-founder Gaurav Dahake claimed that it was a result of another minor glitch and halted all withdrawals. The process of returning funds of investors have been a harrowing experience for them as they accuse BitBNS of having poor customer support and no clarity on how much of their funds have been restored. The exchange has not provided any clarity on how many investors got their portfolio restored and how many are still in the process.
“I have deposited Rs 5 lakh in BitBNS in 2020 and since then, withdrawing my own funds has become a nightmarish experience for me. Till now, I have raised over 40 tickets to seek answers from the exchange but no action has been taken. I have lost all hope that I will ever see my funds getting back,” said Ritesh Sharma, an investor of BitBNS, speaking to The Crypto Times.
BitBNS kept $7.5 Million hack hidden for a year
On March 1, 2023, Crypto investigator @ZachXBT revealed that BitBNS was hit by a hacking incident on February 1, 2022 which resulted in loss of $7.5 Million worth of investors. The exchange had suspended all operations immediately post the hack and termed it as a “maintenance” exercise undertaken by them.
ZachXBT called out their lies on ‘X’ after more than a year which then led the co-founder Gaurav Dahake accept that his exchange was indeed hacked.
Seeking Help from BitBNS is torture: Investors
According to various investors who interacted with The Crypto Times, the customer support of BitBNS fares very poor when it comes to addressing concerns of their customers. Many users claimed that the protocol set by BitBNS asks them to raise a ticket regarding their issue, which is then forwarded to the support team. However, the back and forth process of raising tickets and seeking answers from the exchange is torturous, as claimed by investors. For example, take a look at this exchange between an investor and BitBNS official handle spanning from February 27 to August 22 this year.
On March 13 this year, BitBNS announced that they are rolling out INR withdrawals but only to a limited group of one million users. However, there is no update since then whether all customers can finally withdraw their funds. The BitBNS team has also not provided any clarity on how many customers availed their initial INR withdrawal process.
The Crypto Times team reached out to BitBNS for a statement regarding the queries posted by their investors. However, expectedly, the BitBNS support team mailed us back, asking us to “raise a ticket”. This article will be updated once we get a complete statement from the exchange.
Lack of Transparency in BitBNS
A major concern with BitBNS has been its lack of transparency. Essential information such as financial reserves, token allocation, and other critical data remains inaccessible to users. In the cryptocurrency industry, transparency is fundamental; major exchanges typically provide clear details about their reserves, funding sources, and token distribution to build trust and ensure accountability.
BitBNS, however, has failed to uphold these standards, undermining one of the core principles of blockchain technology—transparency and safety. While transparency is crucial for safeguarding user interests and fostering trust, the exchange has not met these expectations, deepening skepticism and frustration in the users.
Conclusion
This is not the first time an Indian cryptocurrency exchange has faced significant issues impacting its users. Following the well-documented problems with WazirX, Bitbns now finds itself under scrutiny for similar concerns. The lack of a clear announcement regarding the missing funds from Bitbns has led many to suspect an escape plan rather than a genuine effort to resolve the issue. Users are increasingly turning to influencers and prominent crypto investors to expose the situation, as it remains largely unaddressed by the exchange.
Also Read: Here’s Why WazirX Keeps Delaying Withdrawal Of Investor Funds
