CEO of Zimbabwean Crypto Exchange Golix Claims Loses Bitcoin Cold Wallet Password

The CEO and founder of the Zimbabwean cryptocurrency exchange Golix, Tawanda Kembo, has claimed to have forgotten the password to one of the cold wallets in which the exchange had stored Bitcoin (BTC).

The CEO of Zimbabwe’s first crypto exchange, as per local media outlet iHare, is believed to have lost the password in May 2019. According to iHare, two unrelated sources who are aware of the issue confirmed the “password fiasco.”

The password saga has hogged the limelight soon after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe ordered shutdown of the exchange operations for breaching regulatory problems.

Subsequently, Golix terminated all interactions with its clients despite a huge percentage of the exchange’s clients continue to face issues in withdrawing their account balances from the exchange. In a guest post, Kembo replied to accusations of failure to process withdrawal requests from clients.

The CEO rejected claims that his exchange failed to process withdrawal requests due to insolvency. He stated that “99% of the people who have attempted to make a withdrawal on Golix have seen it go through without a hitch.” Furthermore, Kembo pointed out that only 1% of clients are facing difficulty in withdrawing their balances.

Kembo, however, did not refute that he forgot password for accessing the wallet, which holds 33 Bitcoins worth roughly $300,000. He further opined that the entire scenario has been misunderstood.

Back in July, the Zimbabwe government prohibited the use of overseas currencies in the country, causing a sharp rise in P2P trading of Bitcoin. Notably, Zimbabwean citizens use Western Union, PayPal and Moneybookers for cross-border trade of Bitcoin at premium prices.