• Crypto.com pledged to be a responsible and transparent company, but its loose payment partners, stalling fiat transfers and accumulating user complaints suggest otherwise.
• On January 20th, Transactive Systems UAB—the payment processor Crypto.com used for fiat payments—was suspended by the Bank of Lithuania due to breaches in money laundering laws.
• Crypto.com failed to inform customers of the changes until 5 days after, when they migrated fiat wallets to Foris MT Limited, a Malta-based EMI run by two of Crypto.com’s executives.
Crypto.com’s Lack of Transparency
Kris Marszalek promised his client’s funds would be safe after Sam Bankman Fried’s crypto empire collapsed last November, stressing that Crypto.com’s top priority was to remain a trusted and responsible player with full transparency in providing safe and secure services for its users. However, their compliant-loose payment partners, stalling fiat transfers and mounting user complaints indicate an opposite result from what was promised.
Suspension of Payment Processor
On January 20th, the Bank of Lithuania suspended Crypto.com’s fiat payment processor Transactive Systems UAB due to violating money laundering laws and froze all their client funds in euros as a result – without notifying customers about it until five days later. The London-based company had previously been found guilty of misreporting customer balances and equity capital back in 2022 resulting in a 20K EUR fine from the Central Bank of Lithuania as well as having suspicious past ties with Canadian payment processor PacNet which had four executives charged with fraud and money laundering in 2019..
Fiat Wallet Migration
Crypto.com finally emailed its European customers on January 25th stating they had “migrated FIAT Wallet to a new provider” Foris MT Limited – an electronic money institution (EMI) registered in Malta owned by sole shareholder Foris MT Holdings Limited whose two directors are Rafael de Marco e Melo (co-founder/CFO) & Marius Jurgilas (Executive Vice President Of Operations). Despite this move, there is still no explanation for why such decision was taken or why clients weren’t warned beforehand about depositing euros through frozen accounts connected to Transactive Systems UAB .
Mounting Criticism
Due to their lack of communication throughout this incident coupled with their failure to keep up with financial regulations & comply with Anti Money Laundering (AML) standards set by the European Union – Crypto.com has been facing heavy criticism from industry professionals & experts alike who warn against using such unregulated platforms for storing cryptocurrencies or making financial transactions online until more clarifications are provided regarding these matters & concerns are addressed accordingly..
Conclusion
Although claiming itself as transparent company offering secure services for its users – recent events have raised doubts on whether or not Crypto.Com can fulfill such promises given its record so far & lack of communication when it comes addressing customer concerns & informing them about major changes involving their accounts that could put their data at risk