Users of the OKEx cryptocurrency exchange have withdrawn more than $110 million within a few hours of activating outgoing transactions today.
According to cryptoquant, the first group of transactions for 2,822 BTC took place within 15 minutes after the service resumed at 11: 00 Moscow time. 83% of them were sent to non-exchange wallets. This is the largest one-time outflow of funds from the exchange since may of this year. By 12:00 Moscow time, the amount of funds withdrawn had increased to more than 4,000 BTC or $68 million.
Over time, OKEx also began to record an influx of bitcoins, which allowed it to return its reserves to the levels noted before the withdrawal of funds. Cryptoquant CEO Ki Yong Joo States that these are not internal transfers, but user deposits.
OKEx stopped withdrawing funds on October 16 due to the unavailability of one of the holders of its private key. During this time, bitcoin rose to a 35-month high above $19,000. Some analysts believe that the increase in prices could be supported by problems on OKEx, which caused a shortage of supply. Messari analyst Ryan Watkins, however, says this may be "pure coincidence."
Shortly before today's resumption of withdrawals from OKEx, bitcoin began to decline and lost about $3,000 in value within a few hours. Zhu expects that the correction may continue, as the influx of coins to exchanges is still high.