BitPay Faces Backlash from Hong Kong Free Press for Temporarily Suspending Crypto Donations

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Taking pride as the world’s first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has always been in the limelight for good as well as bad reasons since the time of its inception.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Bitcoin payment service provider, BitPay has come under the scope of negative publicity because of its failure of service to an online news website, Hong Kong Free Press.

The Bitcoin provider fetched backlash when it refused to transfer the amount sent as Bitcoin donations to Hong Kong Free Press.

Tom Grundy, Founder, and editor-in-chief of HKFP, through his tweet, shared with the users that cryptocurrency donations were temporarily stopped. The spearhead conveyed his anger by stating that BitPay refused to transfer the donation funds collected for the past three weeks without giving a valid reason for the same to them.

https://twitter.com/tomgrundy/status/1171657974043074562

In another tweet, Tom clarified that the donation funds had been at hold for past few weeks primarily because Hong Kong banks rely on SWIFT pedagogy and not IBANs. With this being a consistent issue, the transfer of funds rising up as a problem has surely raised an array of questions for the players.

With a highly dynamic political scenario in Hong Kong, the problematic funds’ transfer can be the outcome of varied possibilities involving many factors.

There is a possibility of BitPay being under the pressure of the Chinese government. Another speculative reason for the increased slowdown may be the chaotic situation created because of the compulsory requirement of funds in the current period. BitPay’s incompetence to foster the funds’ transfer also stands as a potent reason for the situation.

“NEVER USE BITPAY, FOLKS,” said an agitated Tom Grundy in his tweet.

https://twitter.com/tomgrundy/status/1171658034218708994

BitPay- The Controversial Payment Processor of Bitcoin:

BitPay garnered negative attention recently when it refused to execute a $100,000 Bitcoin donation concerning the Amazon rainforest fire. In its defense, the processing platform stated that the charity amount exceeded the network’s maximum permitted amount for donations.

The US-based cryptocurrency payment processor, BitPay was some time back accused of deceiving its customers by charging service chares disguised as transaction fees on the network.

With all these accusations and allegations, BitPay surely puts itself in the square where it becomes difficult for the investors to show trust in it or not.