In a press release to clients, leading bitcoin exchange in terms of volume, has announced that OKPay had informed them that they will no longer be performing Payments to and from bitcoin exchanges. According to MtGox, the payment solution will continue to operate for the short term which will allow customers to make arrangements for withdrawals and alternate funding solutions.
OKPay is a BVI based online payment solution provider that offers solutions for ecommerce businesses. Their target clients are small businesses, gaming companies, software developers, and Online Trading firms. MtGox didn’t provide any details behind OKPay’s motives. However, as OKPay isn’t immediately halting transfers, we assume the current situation isn’t similar to when Dwolla was contacted by the DHS to halt payments to MtGox’s US account. Therefore, in light of developments with Liberty Reserve, along with what happened between Dwolla and MtGox, our assumption is that this is a defensive move being made by OKPay.
On OKPay’s site, they only offered a one line comment saying “Dear customers, we are currently suspending bitcoin processing.” Another question is what happens to bitcoin/OKPay funding. The firm announced the ability to fund accounts with bitcoins in March 2012. At the time they stated that conversions from bitcoin to major currencies would be based on current bitcoin exchange prices. Therefore, this service may be affected as a result as well.
As opposed to OKPay, MtGox though provided a much more descriptive post:
Mt. Gox has recently been informed by OKPay, one of our longtime partners, that they are planning to stop performing wire transfers to and from all Bitcoin exchanges, including Mt. Gox. OKPay is offering a solution, but in the meantime we want to make sure that Mt. Gox customers and the Bitcoin community are well-informed about this development. While we are not completely clear about the dates of the transition, we would like to make a couple of points clear: •We will soon stop accepting deposits via OKPay. This may take up to a couple of weeks, but it will happen eventually. •Withdrawals to OKPay accounts will not be cut immediately, but will only be allowed up to the amount that OKPay users have deposited into Mt. Gox via OKPay. Beyond that amount there are other methods of withdrawal available. Mt. Gox wishes the best to OKPay, and we look forward to working together more closely in the future. The Bitcoin economy is going through many changes recently, and we are positive that they will ultimately work themselves out in the best interests of the community and the World.
