According to reports by The Block on June 30, the user said she deposited $120,000 into her Bittrex account in August 2018, she then added that the company suspended the funds and denied her access to it until this year in November. She also claimed that Bittrex tried “to extort her by withholding the funds she had in her account” asking her to sign an agreement that prevents her from suing the company.
The exchange in countering her allegations said that she did not provide evidence of the source of funds as required by the US Federal law and New York state. Bittrex also added that the plaintiff during registration accepted the terms of service of the platform and this included an arbitration clause.
Bittrex terms of Service
The first page of Bittrex’s terms of services specified that the arbitration clause “governs resolution of certain disputes and waives any right to trial by jury or to participate in a class action.” Bittrex then asked the court to compel arbitration or send the case to a federal court in Seattle.
The plaintiff, however, gave no reply to the request. The court granted Bittrex its request. According to the report’s author, he believes the plaintiff will most likely lose the case:
“One imagines an uphill battle convincing an arbitrator that (if we assume Bittrex’s argument is correct) that requiring documentation of source of funds is somehow unlawful, if required by state and federal law.”
In similar happenings, Cointelegraph reported that several clients from several states in Brazil have filed lawsuits against Bitcoin Bank Group for being unable to access their funds. In April, a former employee at Kraken, a U.S-based crypto exchange, dragged the firm to court for not paying him for work done in the firm. He is asking for $900,000, for damages.
