Little-Known Crypto Exchange With Ties to a Shanghai Firm Halts Services, Says CEO 'Missing'

An obscure cryptocurrency exchange named IDAX has said its "Global CEO has gone missing" and asked customers to stop using its services.

The exchange said in an urgent notice on Friday that its chief - whose name was not provided - has been missing for unknown reasons for five days.

As a result, the exchange said the access to its cold wallets that store almost all the crypto assets on IDAX has been restricted and deposits and withdrawals are not allowed.

The announcement comes just days after the exchange notified users on Nov. 24 about congestion holding up deposits and withdrawals and that it would no longer provide services to China-based users.

There are signs that IDAX has close ties to a Chinese firm based in Shanghai and has a presence in the city, which has been taken tougher measures in cracking down on crypto exchanges and token sales recently.

The GBC's website also lists IDAX exchange as one of its businesses.

Further, of all the 43 individuals that list IDAX as their employer on LinkedIn, 26 indicate Shanghai is current location.

Notably, IDAX, with its presence in Shanghai, conducted a sale for its ERC-20-based exchange token, called IDAX Token, in February this year, during which 200 million IT were issued.

A further 20 percent was to be reserved for the "IDAX ecosystem" and 10 percent to circulate on the exchange.

The white paper didn't disclose the name of the IDAX CEO and most of the team members listed in the white paper are only identified by their first name.