The investors have expressed frustration with the delay in withdrawing money from the exchange, contrasting with smooth deposit transactions. Beribit staff attempted to use alternative exits but were stopped by angry investors, leading to police intervention. A video circulating on Telegram suggests that disgruntled clients were given chocolates instead of cash as compensation. Gazeta.Ru reported that the exchange promised to immediately refund 50% of investments, with the remainder to be reimbursed within one to 15 days.
The exchange stated that clients were required to undergo KYC/AML verification processes, leading to a temporary backlog of deposit and withdrawal requests. Beribit clarified that clients who pass verification will regain unrestricted account access. In response to these events, a bill has been proposed in the State Duma to ban crypto exchange operations, although it would not affect crypto transactions or registered mining entities. The bill also includes a prohibition on cryptocurrency advertising.
Beribit, a registered crypto exchange facilitating ruble-crypto, P2P, USDT, and asset trading, faced law enforcement scrutiny with searches conducted at their offices in March. This scrutiny occurred alongside a temporary website outage, reportedly linked to investigations surrounding a terrorist incident at Crocus City Hall.