Chile's Orionx Exchange Halted as $7M Asset Transfers Spark Winding Down
Chilean crypto exchange Orionx has suspended customer withdrawals and begun winding down operations after discovering that more than $7 million of custodied assets had been transferred to wallets outside its control.
A forensic audit found accounting differences totaling approximately $6.98 million across Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, and Polygon.
The alleged transfers occurred between 2018 and 2021, with 79 BTC linked to Orionx custody moving via a Celsius account maintained by former general manager Roberto Zibert and an account associated with the comisiones@orionx.com email.
Orionx filed a report with Chile's Public Prosecutor's Office and a criminal complaint against Zibert, former technology manager Joaquín Díaz, and other unnamed individuals for disloyal administration.
The company claims it will seek to return as much of customers' assets as possible through its five-stage restitution process, but does not guarantee full recovery.