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CoinEx Official Statement on Wall Street Journal Article Recently, an article was published in <i>The Wall Street Journal</i> regarding CoinEx's alleged involvement in a potential security breach. We would like to clarify that CoinEx places a top priority on the security and integrity of our platform. After conducting a thorough investigation, we can confirm that there has been no unauthorized access to the funds or personal information of our users. We utilize industry-leading security measur

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CoinEx is not an officially recognized, supported, or partnered platform by Iran, nor does it have the realistic basis to become an official financial channel for Iran.

Source: CoinEx

CoinEx has taken note of the recent report published by The Wall Street Journal. CoinEx fully respects media supervision and press freedom, and understands the public's high level of concern regarding regulatory compliance, anti-money laundering, and sanctions risks in the digital asset industry. CoinEx attaches great importance to this and believes it has a responsibility to provide clear and objective responses to users and partners.

About CoinEx's Relationship with Iran

CoinEx is a digital asset trading platform that serves ordinary users worldwide. It has never had any business relationship with entities related to the Iranian government or domestic Iranian trading platforms, nor has it provided a funding channel or any form of active assistance to Iranian government institutions, Revolutionary Guard-related entities, or other sanctioned entities.

It is worth noting that CoinEx was blacklisted by the Iranian government as early as 2021, and its official domain was blocked in Iran. This fact itself indicates that CoinEx is not a platform officially recognized, supported, or cooperated with by Iran, nor does it have a practical basis to become an official funding channel for Iran.

CoinEx has never established any office or operational entity in Iran. CoinEx operates a referral rebate system open to all users globally, and some individuals have spontaneously promoted CoinEx through this system, but this is not an organizational behavior of CoinEx.

We strongly oppose conflating the actions of ordinary users with national-level sanctions evasion operations and reject equating on-chain fund flows directly with the platform's knowledge, support, or participation in illegal activities.

Regarding Specific Matters Mentioned in the Report

Regarding the transactions involving Alireza Derakhshan and Zedcex/Zanjani mentioned in the report, based on the information currently available, these transactions occurred before the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the mentioned entities. We do not provide services to any sanctioned entities or individuals, nor have we ever facilitated them knowingly after being aware of their sanctions.

Regarding the Bybit hack incident mentioned in the report, CoinEx assisted Bybit in account blocking and asset freezing immediately after the incident occurred, and we will conduct an internal review of the related transactions mentioned in the report. In fact, CoinEx also suffered a network attack attributed to a North Korea-linked organization in 2023, resulting in a loss of nearly $80 million, according to multiple investigations. We are well aware of the significant harm caused by malicious cybercrime to the crypto industry and user assets and are fully aligned with global law enforcement agencies and on-chain security organizations in combating hacker crimes and tracing stolen funds. Any insinuation that the platform intentionally condones or assists hackers in money laundering not only contradicts the facts but also goes against our core values and vested interests.

Interpreting On-Chain Data

Blockchain transactions are characterized by openness, cross-platform functionality, and traceability. The fact that on-chain funds have passed through a platform does not necessarily mean that the platform was aware of, supported, or was involved in the related fund activity. There is significant variance in data from different third-party on-chain analysis platforms, and data from any single platform should not be taken as conclusive. On-chain attribution itself is a limited analytical method, and its conclusions are heavily dependent on interpretation. Furthermore, aggregating bidirectional fund flows into a single total, implying an amount processed by CoinEx, is highly misleading.

Recent Measures Taken

Following sanctions imposed on domestic Iranian exchanges like Nobitex, CoinEx immediately initiated a comprehensive review and exit process regarding Iran-related risk exposure and implemented the following measures:

● Refusing registrations from users in Iran, enhancing identification of Iranian users, and continuously conducting compliant offboarding of identified Iranian user accounts;

● Implementing comprehensive geofencing and access restriction measures for the Iran region, with accounts and assets of identified sanctioned entities or individuals being restricted or frozen;

● Strengthening the Know Your Transaction (KYT) system to enhance monitoring and review capabilities for transactions involving sanctioned regions, high-risk addresses, and abnormal on-chain paths, with related transactions being frozen;

● Continuously identifying and dealing with accounts abusing the platform for illicit activities, especially those engaging in fund transfers using CoinEx as a money mule.

Future Commitments

The digital asset industry is still rapidly evolving, and the global regulatory environment is continuously changing. Like the entire industry, CoinEx's anti-money laundering (AML) and transaction monitoring capabilities are also constantly improving. We will continue to invest resources in enhancing KYC, AML, sanction screening, and on-chain risk monitoring capabilities to respond to concerns in a responsible manner and welcome scrutiny from relevant authorities.