The Gate.io team said that the company’s “operations are running smoothly” and that all efforts are now focused on creating a subsidiary trading platform in Hong Kong called Gate.HK.
The statement was made after Twitter broke information that the exchange was insolvent due to an alleged link to the Multichain crosschain router (MULTI) protocol. On May 24, Arkham Intelligence analysts released data indicating a large influx of MULTI on Gate.io, as “the protocol team is allegedly arrested in Shanghai.”. Several sources said that Multichain co-founder and CEO Zhao Jun is unavailable for communication and his Twitter account has been blocked;
On May 25, the Binance exchange suspended deposits for ten Multichain bridge token networks amid uncertainty over the project’s future fate.</nbsp;The exchange said the transaction ban will remain in place until clarification is received from the Multichain team to restore operations.
On May 31, Multichain representatives released a statement saying that the CEO is missing and some of the protocol routers are no longer operational because only the CEO has access to the relevant servers. On the same day, some Twitter users began posting screenshots of transactions that purported to be large deposits of FTM from Multichain team members to Gate.io.If you believe these posts, on May 25-26 from an unknown user to Gate.io was transferred FTM in the amount of more than $10 million.
Gate.io has been licensed as a Corporate and Trust Service Provider (TCSP) in Hong Kong, allowing the exchange to legally provide virtual asset custody services to residents of the region;