Silence is not golden: OKEx still quiet as customers seek answers

As the crypto market continues to soar to new heights on a nearly daily basis - with Bitcoin currently resting around the $16,100 threshold - the murkiness surrounding cryptocurrency exchange OKEx has continued to linger.

OKEx initiated a crypto withdrawal suspension on Oct. 16, citing the unusual reason that one of the company's private-key holders had been cooperating with local security agencies, and thus, it was in the best interest of its customers that any crypto movement emanating from the exchange be halted for the time being.

The OKEx team has failed to provide any sort of clarity in regard to the situation.

"We'd like to reiterate and assure all OKEx users that their funds are safe and that all other services remain unaffected. We sincerely apologize for the temporary suspension of withdrawals. Our teams are working tirelessly to restore our services to full capacity as soon as possible. The security of our users' funds and assets on the OKEx platform remain our first and foremost priority."OKEx's silence has been confusing.

It has been almost a month since OKEx announced that it was suspending customer crypto withdrawals, which is a long time, especially for an exchange as big as OKEx.

"The voice of the market has changed a lot in response to the OKEx incident, from the initial sentiment of trust and relaxation of users to many complaints and even anger. All in all, hopefully OKEx will return to normal as soon as possible."

Is OKEx hurting the industry's market perception?

OKEx is a very popular derivatives exchange, and in the current crypto investment environment - where demand for many digital assets is increasing daily - its loyal customers seem to have been affected greatly.

From a security standpoint, Lior Lamesh, CEO and co-founder of blockchain cybersecurity company GK8, believes that the ongoing OKEx saga is a classic example of exploiting a single point of failure in the exchange's security architecture.

One potential effect that OKEx's silence could have on the crypto sector is that it may help users understand that, given what is known about the situation, multisignature or multiparty-computation solutions may not secure enough, as they all tend to share a single point of failure that can be exploited - be it through external hacking jobs or insiders.