White Whale, a cryptocurrency trader, claims that $3.1 million of his assets are frozen on the MEXC exchange. He said that the exchange invited him to Malaysia for discussions with its leadership but declined due to concerns over coercive tactics and security risks, as mentioned in a social media statement.
"They gave me an exclusive invitation to Malaysia to have an in-depth communication with the leadership team," said Whale, Crypto Trader. "Crypto kidnappings are on the rise - why would someone with over $100M on-chain ever agree to fly to another country and enter the lion's den of an organization he's publicly protesting against? MEXC tried to lure them with a potential partnership and trading perks."
In recent months, MEXC has been under scrutiny from regulators and the community after freezing a trader's assets without clear justification. This incident has led to accusations of opaque governance and arbitrary enforcement. The case involves the pseudonymous trader "White Whale," whose assets were frozen in July 2025 over alleged "abnormal trading activity" or unspecified risk management criteria. The public backlash, including a multimillion-dollar social media campaign, has sparked debates about custodial risks and transparency in centralized crypto exchanges.
According to industry reports from 2025, robust Know Your Customer (KYC) implementation resulted in a 38% reduction in crypto-related fraud. The average identity verification time on major exchanges decreased to 3.5 minutes from 7 minutes in 2023. Companies like Binance have become benchmarks for compliance and user onboarding due to their investments in biometric verification, real-time sanctions screening, and global KYC harmonization. Approximately 67% of institutional investors cited strong KYC protocols as crucial when choosing exchanges, highlighting an increased focus on compliance and fraud prevention.
MEXC has faced criticism from traders regarding its handling of withdrawals, especially when large profits are involved. Many users report account freezes under vague "risk control" measures when attempting to withdraw gains. One trader expressed frustration: "I have not been able to recover my funds for almost nine months now, and it is driving me insane," while others caution that profits trigger these risk controls.
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Singapore, MEXC Global operates globally with entities in Estonia, Seychelles, and other jurisdictions. It offers services such as spot and derivatives trading, ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds), staking, and margin products to over 10 million users across more than 170 countries. Despite operating under multiple licenses—including one from the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit through MEXC Estonia OÜ—the platform faces ongoing criticism over inconsistent enforcement of compliance protocols.