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Crypto users left hanging as Uphold and CredEarn announce sudden end to relationship

Crypto users left hanging as Uphold and CredEarn announce sudden end to relationship

The crypto community was left with uneasy feeling on Tuesday as the popular Crypto exchanged announced it was ending a partnership with Cred, a third-party service that allowed Uphold.com members to earn interest on their cryptocurrencies.

Members of Uphold.com were informed on Tuesday 27th, October that they had abruptly discontinued their relationship with crypto-lending provider Cred. An Uphold member has sent us a copy of the email that was sent, which includes some rather alarming arrangements during this transition period: “no longer will people be able to move funds into Cred from an Uphold wallet or to see the Cred balance from Uphold.com.” The full copy of the email is pictured below.

It didn’t take long for the community to post frustrations of anxiety caused by the decision for these two crypto companies to suddenly stop working together. Nor did they specify a reason although from a discussion on Twitter it appears it may be for ‘commercial reasons” whatever that means.

Uphold has become popular with users of the popular, private internet browser Brave, which pays users a small amount of crypto known as BAT. To receive BAT from Brave, you will need an Uphold.com account.

Both parties have expressed interest in a smooth transition which is positive. The lack of transparency and openness about this is still concerning, especially since it seemed to happen so abruptly. By quickly terminating like this it leaves many customers in the dark. Crypto banks have a responsibility to alleviate uncertainty by showing a level of transparency and trust. This certainly does not convey such sentiments.

Uphold.com email notice

Uphold.com suspends relationship with crypto-lending provider Cred

When we reached out to Cred, we were able to get this reply: “Please allow us some time to confirm the specifics of this internally to be able to provide an accurate response to you. Rest assured funds are going to be returned to users if need be when this announcement is finalized. We were also advised that we will have more information and an official statement by tomorrow.”

Later in the day, an email was sent out to Uphold.com that had pledged assets to Cred which was able to shed light on the situation:

Dear Username,

Cred has experienced irregularities in the handling of specific corporate funds by a perpetrator of fraudulent activity that has negatively impacted Cred’s balance sheet and precipitated a law enforcement investigation into the loss of these funds. Cred is cooperating fully with law enforcement authorities in connection with the investigation into the incident. Cred is in the process of carrying out an internal accounting of its assets and assessing the impact of the incident on its current business and in consultation with legal counsel has determined to temporarily suspend all inflows and outflows of funds relating to the CredEarn program. No client personal information or other account data has been compromised. Given the circumstances, we are unable to comment further at this time but we will undertake to provide an update within the next 2 weeks. We regret having to relay this disheartening news. However, we assure you that we will share as much information as we can, to keep you abreast of this matter. Thank you for your patience.

Sincerely,

The Cred Team

About The Author

Sam Reed

Tech-writer with marketing, social media background.