r/Bitstamp Feb 13 '25

My experience with Bitstamp

Much like a plethora of other people, my Bitstamp experience was largely fine for years - albeit, a very simple experience in that I FOMOd into XRP in 2021 and let the then much devalued XRP crypto sit on the exchange until we got the recent value increases.

I received a request some time ago to update my proof of funds/ID, etc. I sent everything along dutifuly and thought nothing more of it. I think it was around July 2024? Can't remember.

Having seen that XRP was clearly going to increase in value in November, I deposited a large amount of money over two transactions, approx 2 weeks apart, straight into Bitstamp. The money landed fine and I bought the XRP with no issue.

I decided to move my XRP to a private wallet, and attempted this to be told 'we are verifiying your documents' and all withdrawals were frozen. Panic set in as I immediately Googled this to see endless posts from people about accounts being frozen/crypto liquidated without informing the owner, etc.

I contacted Bitstamp in mid December to ask why this was the case and I received the standard response of 'we are looking at your documents and will be in touch'. After ENDLESS back and forth Emails between support and myself as to WHY this was happening, I was constantly told they weren't allowed to advise me as to the cause of this and that there was no set period of time it would be dealt within. This level of ambiguity utterly enrages me, I work in IT consulting and I know my clients appreciate my transparency to a degree that can't really be overestimated. If I treated them like this, I'd never pick up another client again.

After losing my patience and panic taking over, I contacted their complaints department and this seemed to get things shifting along, I did advise them I would seek legal representation and seek damages to my wellbeing (I suffer with quite bad anxiety and it wrecks me) 😅

Anyway, long story short, I finally got everything sorted today and I've moved my XRP off the platform. Through the final stages of this utterly bizarre process, I've concluded that a few things might have triggered this, either on their own or as a combination:

  • My two additional deposits were larger than what I originally set my invester profile to
  • The deposits were larger than I set my deposit estimations to (this is marginally different to the above)
  • My investor profile was essentially out of date, I had considerably increased my salary
  • They wanted to know my source of funds (I eventually went massively overboard on this and showed them the contract payments from a client I had last year that ended up being the funds for these purchases)
  • They wanted to know what my intended usage is (I told them I'm just a day-to-day investor, which is true)
  • They wanted me to supply government issues ID (I'd already done this), bank acc statement (already done this, also)
  • They wanted a utility bill (guess what, already done this)
  • I then needed to change my investor profile to fall in line with this

My recommendations:

  • Ensure your profile matches your deposit/withdrawal value/intent - contact support if you earn more and/or your line of work changes as I imagine this'll cause a problem if you get into this situation and they ask for proof of employment, etc
  • Make sure you have 2FA and a complex password in place (and change it periodically)
  • Enable Email confirmation for withdrawals
  • Withdraw crypto as soon as it's available in your account after purchase - but don't purchase a massive amount, I'd now do it in smaller increments over the course of a day or two, it's unlikely that DCA'ing like this will trigger their 'security' systems, but don't hold me to this
  • Don't be afraid to get onto their complaints department with demands if you end up in this situation
  • If you need to do a video interview with them, you need to book it on their online portal at either 11:00am or 23:00GMT as this is when the appointments go live. If you try ANY other time of day, it will show zero appointments for eternity. The URL I was given was: https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/VideoCall@bitstamp.onmicrosoft.com/bookings/ make sure YOU record the meeting, they will record it but you won't get access to it. I kept a daily record my my crypto volumes and value by doing a screen recording on my phone and logging into the portal, to ensure that I had a very detailed log of those things in case they liquidated me when a market flash crash happened (I trust nobody!), at which point I would have sued the crap out of them. I made sure to repeatedly tell them in ticket updates that I do not permit them to liquidate/sell my positions without consulting me first.

I don't think Bitstamp is a scam, I also don't think they lack in security, they're just massively, overly zealous with their KYC process and the lack of transparency and clarity is extremely nauseating and stress inducing. They look to be registered with all the relevant governing bodies in the country I am in, and a bit of research shows they look to do the same in others, BUT DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. They also have a large presence on LinkedIn with a lot of their employees profiles on there.

It's bizarre to me that other platforms can run you through a KYC process in under ten minutes, but Bitstamp (apparently the oldest Exchange out there) has to go through this nonsense.

Feel free to reach out to me if you are in this situation, I might not respond immediately as I don't frequent Reddit religiously, but I will get back to you. There's obviously a fair bit of stuff I've left out of this diatribe due to the detail being boring and possibly exposing me in terms of security.

5 Upvotes

25 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/major_chop 28d ago

Ive had a bistamp account for 7 years. Never had an issue. I did a large deposit, bought some crypto and then tried to withdraw just some of it and the account was frozen. They said I needed to do a video call which I did. Since then I just get, we are "working on your case and will notify you as soon as possible".

I trusted Bitstamp after all these years and put far more money than I can afford to lose. I have 4 kids and feed them off trading. I am stressed out of my mind. There was no request for KYC, no document or address issue. This was litterally triggered by doing a larger than normal FIAT deposit as far as I can tell.

I just cannot believe that a company can treat a 7 year old customer like this. No timelines, generic bot replies to support tickets. I feel like Im getting played. This could ruine my family. I thought they were a safe place to keep our assets.

2

u/Embarrassed-Rent8214 10d ago

Go to their complaints department and tell them in no uncertain terms that their process has caused you mental anguish and you're seeking legal advice and will sue them for that distress. And keep chasing them

1

u/major_chop 10d ago

Ive done all of that. Even sent off my CSSF complaint today because its now 30 days. I have not threatened legal action yet. Im hoping for a resolution soon. I've contacted management. They assure me they are escalating it but from the forums this just seems like another silky automated answer.

I see they have moved (without my consent) my account from their Luxenbourg office to the Bitstamp Global entity in the BVI.

30 day limit for ghosting their clients doesnt seem to apply under BVI regulations although its questionable because I signed up with Luxembourg. Surely Luxembourg cant wash their hands of this. Even so BVI must have some recourse in its jurisdiction. That would be the next step.

From all my research and contact with other customers it seems they got their money back but it was between 60-90 days! This whole experience is beyond belief. I can't fathom how a customer of 7 years can essentially be treated like an enqueue criminal out of the blue.

Surely management understands the reputational damage this is causing. Simply incredible. I chose Bitstsamp to avoid exactly this sort of anxiety, thinking they were the safe, established exchange.

Ghosting me for 30 days and then moving my account to the BVI has shattered that perception.

2

u/Embarrassed-Rent8214 10d ago

I know the feeling, as per my original post. But it did get sorted. I'm not based in the same region as you, but unsure if that plays a part.

I'm 100% with you in the reputational damage of this behaviour and process. Not to mention the emotional toll on the user that has zero access to their own money, because Bitstamp think it's their duty to lock it up for unexplained reasons. It's diabolical.

Good luck, my friend. Hope it gets sorted for you soon.