My bittrex account was disabled, suddenly, without warning and with seemingly no reason... I thought.
When i logged in about a week ago, instead of being brought to the market page, i was brought to the settings page. This page had a message stating my account had been disabled for one of several reasons, none of which were to my knowledge.
I didnt think much of it because i was able to navigate the other pages within my profile. It wasnt for a few days until i tried to buy some Nexus (nxs), that i knew something was wrong... I wasnt allowed to buy anything! Start freaking out!
Let the frantic web searching commence to try and find a real reason for this mistake, it mustve been a mistake right? I came up empty!
The only reason i heard was from someone in the bittrex slack channel and this person said this was all due to a merger between bittrex and another company, UpBit with association with another company (dont remember the name). Something about US trading exports...
I thought, "ok, what happened then?"
The reason i was given by bittrex support, though, had me a little scared.
Here is part of a conversation i was having with someone in slack, explaining my case:
"Yeah. My account must've been locked for about a week before I realized it. I already had an enhanced account, but they said my name was flagged on the OFAC Banned list because of the limited info they had on me since a I had a basic account (I had an enhanced account). Google OFAC and freak out at your findings for a second. At this point I had already tried to send new photo id pics and a selfie but the site said there was an upload error. I than went back into the support ticket I had opened that night and uploaded the selfie of me holding my id and a paper saying "bittrex" and the date. I went into slack the next night and have my ticket # and they had it enabled within 5 minutes, after 2 days of waiting"
A quick search of OFAC brings you to this page: https://www.treasury.gov/about
Terrorism and Financial Intelligence
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
So now im bugging out a little. I only have a few thousand USD in my account, hadnt traded in a while, nothing suspicious on my end. Why did this happen? And how?
I was told this mistake was because of limited personal info due to my basic account but i already had an enhanced account. I already sent the photos and info for that months earlier with no issue. All of sudden, now its not enhanced enough? I resend all the pictures and creepy selfies and slack support had my account enabled in 5 minutes.
Is there something else going in here? Why so many accounts disabled at once and why the flagging on OFAC? Why was my enhanced account downgraded to a basic account and then that be used as the reason for this issue?
Makes you question your faith and trust in these exchanges.
Please share my story to help others find their way.
Seymour Mac