- CoinFlex revealed that the investor running a $47 million debt with the exchange is Roger Ver.
- Ver, aka 'bitcoin Jesus," denied rumors of his debt on social media, saying that CoinFlex actually owed him money.
- CoinFlex CEO Mark Lamb later revealed Ver's identity as the account holder in a public tweet.
CoinFlex said that the high-profile investor running a negative balance with the crypto exchange is Roger Ver, a long-time bitcoin evangelist.
Ver, who is also known as "bitcoin Jesus," has denied owing anything to the exchange, implying in a tweet yesterday that CoinFlex actually owes him money. Coinflex halted customer withdrawals due to liquidity issues stemming from a large account that was running a negative balance.
"Recently some rumors have been spreading that I have defaulted on some debt to a counter-party," Ver wrote, shortly after CoinFlex announced it would issue recovery tokens — an attempt by the exchange to resume customer withdrawals after a "high integrity" investor ran into trouble. "Not only do I not have a debt to this counter-party, but this counter- party owes me a substantial sum of money, and I am currently seeking the return of my funds."
Rumors surrounding Ver began when a Twitter user claimed a "verified insider" disclosed the Ver was the owner of the indebted account, Ethereum World News reported.
Lamb tweeted a response less than an hour later, reiterating the identity of the account holder as Ver. "He is denying that the debt pertains to him and so we felt the need to clarify to the public that yes – the debt is 100% related to his account," Lamb said.
Ver has been a loud proponent of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. He would be just one of many high profile holders to be impacted by the market's latest stumble, as cryptocurrency investors struggle to stay amid a long-running sell-off.