Dubai-based Bitcoin exchange suspends UAE dirhram withdrawals

BitOasis claims issues with their bank to blame for the measure

Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange BitOasis will no longer be processing deposits or withdrawals in dirhams from Tuesday, May 15.

That means anyone wanting to access the dirham balances in their account, or wanting to transfer additional dirhams into it via wire transfer, will have to initiate the order by the aforementioned date for it to be actioned.

The company sent out a communication to account holders in the small hours of Monday, May 14 stating that “AED wire deposits and AED wire withdrawals will be temporarily disabled”, although credit card deposits – with a discounted fee of four percent per purchase until June 16 – will still be allowed.

BitOasis claimed the problem was down to their issuing bank and that the usual means of buying and selling of cryptocurrencies on the platform, which include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin and the recently added Monero and Zcash, will remain unchanged. Withdrawals of coins into external wallets is also unaffected.

“If you decide to leave your fiat balances the only way for you to withdraw your funds at any time after May 15th would be to convert it to cryptocurrency and send it to an external wallet,” the statement continued.

“If you choose to keep your AED fiat balances after May 15th, currently we do not have any date on when we will be reactivating AED fiat withdrawals, but we are hard at work to provide our customers with this service.”

BitOasis was founded by Jordanian entrepreneur Ola Dudin back in 2014 and currently operates in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

In January, 2018, the bank also suspended withdrawals to Emirates NBD, Noor Bank and Mashreq bank account holders.