Article: flowie, ChainCatcher

Recently, according to multiple users of the cryptocurrency exchange Websea, it is no longer possible to withdraw funds from the WebSea platform.

On August 5th, Websea officially announced that due to a serious and unidentified attack, it has decided to immediately suspend deposit and withdrawal services. Websea needs to undergo comprehensive security maintenance and will resume services once it is deemed risk-free.

However, after half a month, the deposit and withdrawal services of Websea have not been fully restored.

On August 20th, Websea announced on its official X platform that it is still undergoing comprehensive security upgrades and announced new strategic developments. The full text did not mention when Websea will resume deposit and withdrawal services, and the latest announcement on the official website remains dated August 7th.

On the evening of the 20th, the official X platform of Websea also closely followed the hot topic of "Black Goku," posting that "a huge change is coming to Websea, stay tuned!" accompanied by an image related to the "Black Goku" game.

In the afternoon of the 21st, the official X platform of Websea also announced the launch of a new game token, "MH Token," scheduled for August 22nd (GMT+8).

Although the official X platform of Websea is continuously updating, some users who have been unable to withdraw funds for a long time have fallen into panic and questioned whether Websea has already "run away."

ChainCatcher contacted the official Websea to inquire about the progress of the platform's deposit and withdrawal services, but as of the time of writing, no response has been received. A Websea staff member contacted by ChainCatcher has also left the company in June.

According to public information, Websea is a cryptocurrency exchange registered in Singapore, officially launched on August 28, 2023. Its official announcement stated that the registered users exceeded 400,000 on January 3 and surpassed 650,000 on July 26.

Signs of withdrawal difficulties were seen 3 months ago, and the official community suspected a large number of fake comments

From the official Chinese Telegram of Websea, it can be seen that some platform users reported being unable to withdraw funds as early as May. The user stated that without being informed of any reasons, their login and withdrawal permissions were completely blocked, and no relevant personnel proactively contacted the user to address the subsequent issues.

The user contacted a specialist via email but only received a reply to wait for the specialist's review, and has still not successfully withdrawn funds.

On the evening of August 4th, multiple users again encountered difficulties in withdrawing funds. On August 5th, Websea officially announced that due to a serious and unidentified attack, it has decided to suspend deposit and withdrawal services until the risk is determined to be eliminated.

On August 7th, the platform token WBS of Websea fell by over 80% to below $0.15 within 24 hours. On the same day, the official announcement of Websea once again stated that it is expected to restore the deposit and withdrawal functions of some tokens on August 7th at 17:00 (GMT+8), and the WBS is now trading at around $0.5.

After the announcement, several users in the official Chinese Telegram of Websea reported successful withdrawals, with withdrawal amounts ranging from 40U to 2550U. However, there are still many users who claim that they were unable to withdraw funds.

After nearly half a month, Websea has not been able to fully restore deposit and withdrawal services. On August 20th, it was announced on the official X platform that comprehensive security upgrades are still ongoing.

In addition, Websea also announced two major developments: first, it has received support from new strategic investors, but did not disclose the specific investors. Second, it announced a platform transformation and upgrade, focusing on the gaming ecosystem.

What is unusual is that despite facing restrictions on withdrawals, the official Chinese Telegram of Websea has seen a large number of comments defending Websea and even rebuking those who question whether the platform is "running away," indicating the presence of a large number of fake comments to conceal the abnormal operation of the platform.

The long-term inability to withdraw funds from Websea, and the repeated attempts to reassure users with reasons such as "being attacked" and "system upgrades," are very similar to the situation before the once-popular cryptocurrency exchange FCoin announced its closure.

In February 2020, FCoin announced its closure, after being unable to withdraw funds for a month, and had previously announced multiple times that it was due to technical malfunctions and the need for system adjustments.

However, in the official "The Truth about FCoin" statement, FCoin founder Zhang Jian admitted that he had lied before, and the problems FCoin was facing were not technical issues that the system could not recover from, nor internal team conflicts, but rather the fundamental inability to pay out user withdrawals due to a lack of reserve funds.

It is currently not possible to confirm whether Websea is running away as a team, encountering technical issues, or undergoing operational adjustments.

From the background information of the team, the core team of Websea is quite mysterious, and its business scope is also very broad.

The senior management team is very mysterious, relying on group incentives or acquiring over 600,000 customers

From public channels such as the Web3 asset data platform RootData, only one member of the core team of Websea, COO Herbert Sim, has publicly available information and has made public appearances.

In August 2023, Herbert Sim, in his capacity as COO, published a letter to the cryptocurrency community on the X platform, claiming to be a "big V" with millions of fans and announced the launch of the cryptocurrency exchange Websea.

Subsequently, almost all official promotional activities of Websea were conducted by COO Herbert Sim, and no specific information about other founders, CEOs, or other senior executives of the team can be found.

Herbert Sim currently has over 400,000 fans on the X platform, and his X platform profile describes him as the "Bitcoin Man," without mentioning his role as COO of Websea, and only reposts some promotional information of Websea.

Herbert Sim's LinkedIn information shows that since graduating from the University of Oklahoma in 2010, he has had over 20 job experiences in 14 years.

During this time, Herbert Sim worked at Huobi for 8 months from December 2017 to July 2018, and served as the Global Operations Director of Huobi for 6 months. He then worked for 7 months at the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Cryptology as the Chief Marketing Officer.

Herbert Sim is also the founder of Crypto Chain University, a database that compiles research papers on blockchain and cryptocurrency. In addition, he serves as an advisor to Forbes and many other media or technology companies.

Since its launch in August 2023, Websea has positioned itself very broadly, not limited to being just an exchange, but rather targeting the new paradigm of digital assets for Generation Z.

Two months after the launch of the Websea exchange, it introduced its platform token WBS. Websea stated that WBS can be used in the NFT market, Web3 games, and Web3 social networks within the Websea ecosystem.

In June of this year, Websea also announced the incubation of its first Web3 game with a farming theme, Meta Heaven.

In terms of user acquisition, Websea also uses common exchange methods, such as team incentives and commission rebates. The top teams in terms of new user acquisition will receive BTC purchase discounts and can receive up to a 45% rebate on spot trading fees. On July 26th, Websea announced that its registered users had exceeded 650,000.

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