ByBit Suspends USD Deposits via Bank Transfers And SWIFT Network

By Kevin • March 4, 2023 9:57 pm • Comments

Crypto exchange ByBit just announced that it would be suspending all USD deposits that were made through bank transfers and the SWIFT network.

This announcement caused some concern among investors as it seems that there are a lot of banks and institutions that are pausing crypto-related transfers.

The reason that ByBit gave for the suspension is because there were “outages” from its partner which now prevents all wire transfers from any US Bank.

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This may have quite an impact on the market given that ByBit is quite a popular exchange and not being able to support wire transfers would likely prevent a lot of customers from purchasing digital assets.

It is unclear on when this suspension will be lifted as no official date has been provded yet by ByBit.

Bitcoin.com reports:

The cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, founded in 2018, announced on Saturday that it is suspending U.S. dollar deposits. “Bybit has suspended USD deposits via bank transfer due to service outages from our partner,” the company said.

“Effective immediately, USD deposits via wire transfer (SWIFT) and wire transfer (for U.S. bank) are no longer available.”

Bybit noted that customers can continue to make U.S. dollar deposits via the Advcash wallet or with a credit card. Bybit clients will still be able to make withdrawals via wire transfers through SWIFT and U.S. banks until March 10, 2023.

“If you wish to withdraw USD at short notice, please do so as soon as possible to avoid potential disruptions that may occur due to prevailing circumstances,” the cryptocurrency exchange announced.

With that being said, the exchange took some precaution to notify its customers that all assets in the exchange were still safe.

Still, as all investors know, there is always a degree of risk that is taken if digital assets are stored on a third party service and self-custody is always the safest option.

This is not the first time that a crypto exchange has suspended USD withdrawals for USD deposits as Binance has also done the same thing in the past.

What is interesting is that ByBit’s announcement comes during the same time as when the Silvergate Bank issues were revealed.

So far, there seems to be no relation between the two events besides the fact that it just happened to be a coincidence that the two happened at the same time.

CoinTelegraph concludes:

According to Bybit CEO Ben Zhou, the exposure amounts to $150 million via its investment arm Mirana Asset Management.

A total of $120 million of the funds were collateralized and had already been liquidated, according to Zhou. Moreover, he assured that all client funds go into separate accounts, and that Bybit’s earn products do not use Mirana.

The halt comes just a day after Silvergate bank announced plans to discontinue its digital assets’ payment network, claiming the termination is a “risk-based decision”. The network was one of the major on- and off-ramps for USD in the American crypto industry.

Regulatory pressure and market outflows following the dramatic collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November 2022 are driving U.S. banks to reduce their exposure to cryptocurrency assets.

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