Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe instructed banks to stop holding accounts for cryptocurrency exchanges and to stop facilitating transfer of cryptos. The central bank gave the banks 60 days to halt activities but it seems the grip has been tightened as it now seems some of Golix’s bank accounts have already been frozen yet only nine days have passed since the directive was passed.
Something’s amiss…
We realised something wasn’t right when 3 days ago we received this email:
Not sure if the RBZ directive on cryptocurrency is the cause of this but it seems Golix not processing withdrawals. Its the 3rd day now I am trying to withdraw my $1500 from the exchange and i am being told different excuses. Yesterday was told all withdrawals would be processed last night and it never happened. Normally its been taking just 1 hour to withdraw.
The challenges this man faced are probably a result of the fact that by the time he attempted to make a withdrawal yet the accounts had already been frozen. People in our Whatsapp community groups have also been facing challenges with withdrawals and now we know what the problem is.
A source close to the situation has informed us that some of (not all) Golix’s have been frozen. Since some of their accounts are still active it probably means the particular bank that has closed the Golix account has decided to take an aggressive stance and not give Golix any time to move their money or facilitate withdrawal until the 60-day timeline has come to pass. The source did not share which bank had frozen the Golix account.
What happened to the 60 days?
It’s interesting that the sixty-day timeline seems to have been thrown out of the window and banks have been given free rein to proceed as they please. It does seem quite harsh to close the accounts a mere week after the directive has been given.
How does the RBZ or the bank that decided to freeze the account expect citizens to secure their funds? Wasn’t the whole point of this directive to ‘safeguard’ the public? I’m not sure if ensuring that people cannot access their funds falls in line with the safeguarding or maybe those who were dealing in cryptos have just been left in the cold…
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13 comments
so crypto currency was created to circumvent this central control and now tnx just took it to where it belongs outside the system. people will still use it now dba can’t quantify it. it would have been better to charge a capital.gains tax on it than block it hoping that fore will go to banks. SMDH
Well let when the going gets tough if golix pays out…a true test for both them and customers
Can anyone explain what are the available options for people still holding cryptocurrencies with Golix. Withdrawal is no longer possible as the accounts were frozen as you stated. Maybe share some options which Golix users can explore to get funds back or if there are alternative exchanges to move the cryptocurrencies. It looks like the Golix guys are not taking proactive measures now that there survival here is now under threat
I maintain as I have in previous comments that Golix must not play this down. Any attempt to play it down will work against them. Golix must be the victim here (they really are). Where is the PR machine? they should plant stories in media outlets and place an advert in the Herald newspaper business section
tomorrow (as big as they can get) highlighting these new and difficult conditions under which they now have to navigate at the same time assuring their users that many other banks continue to work with them. Keeping quiet or posting twitter quotes won’t cut it, this will create an atmosphere of panic and a bank run!!! They should simply say something like:
Following the directive of the RBZ on XX/XX/2018 we have successfully been able to engage all relavent authorities and stakeholders to ensure full compliance with local laws and directives of the RBZ while maintaining .Because blockchain technology is a new technology that has revolutionised the financial sector and has outpaced traditional regulatory mechanisms, our service has recently received a renewed wave of fears from the RBZ. While we believe that these fears are mis-directed, the RBZ issued a directive instructing our local banking partners to withdraw their services to us and our users. The 60 days would allow enough time for us to ensure that we put in place mechanisms to handle this directive while protecting our users’ deposits as well as fully complying with all applicable laws, regrettably just 9 days since the directive one of our banking partners has unilaterally frozen our depositors funds’ accounts without prior notice and against the spirit of the directive. Because of these actions we are experiencing difficulties processing any funds handled by XYZ bank, only a limited number of users will be affected while we engage the bank to resolve this issue, please be advised that all other banks are fully operational on Golix and that Golix remains a registered, legal and operational company in accordance with the laws of Zimbabwe, we would like to asure all users that they can continue trading on the Golix platform as normal while we facilitate a smooth transition. We advice all users to rely only on formal communication from Golix to their registered email or telephone number for any urgent notifications. Our customer support agents are available 24/7 and ready to help. Be Bold!
Bla Bla Bla
Users should be angry at the RBZ and overzealous banks and NOT Golix. I sdont know why Golix keeps om taking the flack and blame for RBZ issues… But hey im not privy to the inner workings at play here.
A wise person should have moved the bitcoins to other crypto currencies or accounts other than golix then think of the next move thats what I did now all I have to do is sell the bitcoins to someone else or buy something online
bye bye golicks and “investors”, hahahaha !! enjoy the pitfalls of your “investment”
You are sadistic.
I disagree, I make money, fools lose it !
Make sure this is not like another mmm…. Pay out what you owe… Irregardless of the central bank
And showr that you care about customers and not only profits
The value of bitcoin is only gonna get higher you can still buy bitcoins via master cards and across the boarder in South Africa
Until you get “hit”. Playing in the crypto world is like playing Russian roulette…investment? my foot!!
Here it is again, from a proper investor, with REAL investments: Warren Buffett on cryptocurrencies: “When you buy something because you’re hoping tomorrow morning you’re going to wake up and the price will be higher, you need more people coming into it than are leaving. And you can get that and it will feed on itself for a while, and sometimes for a long while, and sometimes to extraordinary numbers, but they come to bad endings, and cryptocurrencies will come to bad endings. And along with the fact that there’s nothing being produced in the way of value from the asset, you also have the problem that it draws in a lot of charlatans and that sort of thing, who are trying to create various sorts of exchanges or whatever it may be. It’s something where people who are of less-than-stellar character see an opportunity to clip people who were trying to get rich because their neighbor’s getting rich buying this stuff neither one of them understands. It will come to a bad ending”