‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Roger Ver sues Matrixport for freezing $8 million in crypto

Roger Ver, a crypto businessman and influencer, sued a subsidiary of billionaire Jihan Wu’s Matrixport in Seychelles over frozen cryptocurrency funds last year. However, this case has remained relatively unknown until now. 

Ver issued a statement saying that he sued Smart Vega Holding Limited, a division of Matrixport, in August 2022 for $8 million after he could not withdraw this amount due to the stumping of the industry last year, according to a report by The Block on November 6. 

Ver states that his request to withdraw $8 million from bit.com in June 2022 was blocked by Wu, his fellow co-founder of Bitmain, solely because he held Ver responsible for his losses at CoinFLEX.

Different accounts of the same event

After the findings that his lawsuit was underway, Roger Ver issued a statement that explained his undertaking:

 “The reason my funds were unavailable for withdrawal was because Wu had instructed Respondent not to release them to me. Wu had done so because he believed I owed sums to a third party who owed sums to him. His belief was both false and irrelevant,” said an affidavit filed to the Supreme Court of the Seychelles in September 2022. 

A spokesperson of Matrixport issued a statement that offers an entirely different recount of events.

“Mr. Ver is a bit.com customer. This matter stems from the outcome of an exchange investigation into Mr. Ver’s margin trading irregularities on bit.com, which found that he was in breach of his contractual obligations. Subject to a penalty fee for margin call defaults, Mr. Ver was free to withdraw his funds but instead disputed the penalties payable,” stated the public relations director at Matrixport, Ross Gan.  

CoinFLEX crisis still underway

CoinFLEX filed for restructuring in August 2022 after a public dispute with Ver in which it accused its former investor of defaulting on an $84 million debt owed to the company. 

Last week, creditors of CoinFLEX accused Mark Lamb, former owner, of going missing by rerouting resources, sued him and claimed that Lamb settled his debt with Ver earlier this year. The CoinFLEX creditors now hope to get their money back from the businessman.