Cred, a United States-based cryptocurrency lending service, has officially announced the temporary suspension of operations due to an ongoing investigation.
On Oct. 29, Cred executives tweeted that the company is now cooperating with law enforcement authorities to investigate a “recent fraudulent incident.”
As part of the ongoing investigation, Cred suspended “all inflows and outflows of funds.” The company expects to provide an update regarding the issue within the next two weeks.
Unfortunately, we are unable to comment further at this time but we will undertake to provide an update within the next 2 weeks. During this period all inflows and outflows of funds have been suspended.
— Cred (@ihaveCred) October 29, 2020
The news comes shortly after Uphold — a major U.S. cryptocurrency wallet and trading platform — terminated its partnership with Cred. On Oct. 25, Uphold issued an official notice claiming that the firm has “discontinued its relationship with third-party crypto lending provider Cred.” Uphold provided few details regarding the termination, stating that Uphold users will no longer be able to link their Uphold wallet to Cred.
According to some Uphold users, Cred’s issues might have started earlier than that. A self-purported customer of Uphold who also uses Cred’s CredEarn program told Cointelegraph that he first faced a technical problem impeding outflows on Oct. 15. According to the user, Uphold said that the problem was caused by Cred.
Shortly after Uphold “ended the relationship with Cred with no explanation,” Cred disabled user communication for all members in the Cred Telegram chat, the user claimed, stating that about $140,000 in Bitcoin (BTC) and other assets are now locked in his Cred account.
When approached for comment on alleged customer issues on the platform, Cred CEO Dan Schatt said that the firm “appreciates the past partnership with Uphold and will ensure users are informed of any updates to their Cred account.”