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I am a digital nomad. I have been working in IT for more than ten years, and for the last three years I have been working on one project, completely remotely.
Over the past few years, I have lived in the Philippines, Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, and now I am in Kazakhstan.
Constant moving forces you to rebuild your financial life: open accounts in different countries, face fees, currency restrictions, and the unpredictability of local banks. Therefore, cryptocurrency is not an investment for me and not a way to “play the course.” It’s just a tool to live and work between countries without bureaucracy.
I’m not a trader, a crypto enthusiast, or an investor — I just use crypto as a substitute for a bank card. And as a person who is not too deeply immersed in cryptography, I have long believed that storing funds directly on the exchange is quite reliable and convenient.
I used Bybit for this purpose.
(Yes, now it sounds a little ironic — “it seemed reliable.”)
🚨 Blocking
The morning of October 17th started absolutely calmly. I went to have breakfast, opened my mail, and saw an email from Bybit.
At first glance, nothing unusual.: standard notification about “clarifying account information”. I didn’t even pay attention.
After a few minutes, I decided to withdraw some USDT, and that’s when it started. The output is not working. P2P — does not work. Trades are blocked. To say that I was surprised is an understatement. So that you understand the scale of the problem: I was on a trip, flying from Argentina to Kazakhstan to pick up my micromalotype puppy. I didn’t have any cash at all. There was about $50 left on the bank card, just in case. All the fixed assets that I planned to live with in the coming weeks were accumulated in the Bybit wallet. I’m starting to figure out �� what’s going on.
I open the email more carefully and see a link to the transaction in it.: TXID и сумму260 USDT. I copy the hash and open ittronscan.io…and I’m even more surprised.
The transaction has been completedalmost 600 days ago. In other words, we are talking about a transfer that someone sent to my wallet.almost two years ago. Do you think it’s easy to remember who could have made the transfer to 260 USDT almost two years ago and why? At that moment, I was panicking. The details show that the funds came from some kind of strange bot wallet, which is listed99 thousand transactions. Moreover, activity on it stopped in 2024.
It looks like a regular service wallet. But for Bybit algorithms, this is a “suspicious source”. Next, I go to my transaction history on the exchange itself. I open the required period and try to remember what happened then. And then there’s the insight. I remember that it was during that period that II tested Bybit for the first timeand I was doing a test translation.from your personal wallet on Bitpapa to check the speed and fees. I’m going to check Bitpapa — miraculously, after almost two years, the service is still working, and I was able to log in to it. I open the operation history… andI see this same transaction for 260 USDT. Having figured it out to the end, I realized that the reason for the block was the transfer viaBitpapa— A P2P platform that got into a year after this transactionunder OFAC (USA) sanctions. The most annoying thing is that she was sanctioned.March 24, 2024, andMy transaction was completed on March 8th, just two weeks before that..
That is, at the time of the transfer, the service was absolutely “clean” and publicly operating, but after a while it appeared on the sanctions list, and any old operation related to it automatically fell under the “high risk” algorithms.
📎 Working with documents
There is nothing to do — I open the compliance ticket in Bybit. And then I’m surprised again (although it would seem much more). The list of documents they requested looked like a full – fledged spy dossier. First, it was requireddetailed information about the transfer itself: who is the sender, from which wallet, and — attention —a screenshot of the correspondence where it is clear that this translation was intended for me. Fortunately, in my case, the “sender” was me.: я просто переводил средства со своего кошелька Bitpapa на свой же адрес в Bybit.
The history of Bitpapa’s operations showed just that, I took neat screenshots of the interface.
Then came the fun part —documents on the origin of funds. Bybit asked to “prove” where the 260 USDT credited through Bitpapa came from. I had to arrange an archaeology of my own financial life: рыл старую почту, искал хоть какие-то следы. И тут, совершенно случайно, нахожу письмо отMercuryo.io— the service through which I once bought a crypt with a bank card. I log into Mercuryo, find the old logs, and yes, everything matches there.: та самая транзакция, и последние цифры карты.
Осталось доказать, что карта действительно моя. Проблема в том, чтоI haven’t used this bank for a long time., all accounts are closed.
I started sorting through the documents and cards that were left with me on my travels — and miraculously I find them in my wallet.The same card. It has my name and the very last numbers on it. Then they needed:
- documents confirming my professional activity— on the basis of what I work and earn income;
- tax documentsabout the registration of a private business or company;
- And of course,tax return(Where would it be without her?)
I work asindependent contractorin IT, that’s why I immediately attached my work contract. I have a registered private business (similar to an individual entrepreneur), but not in Russia — I am not its tax resident, so I had a registration document, and I added it. It turned out to be more difficult with the tax return: в стране, где я плачу налоги,The annual declaration simply does not exist— taxes are paid monthly. Therefore, I have attachedpayment receipts for the last two monthsas a confirmation. I collected the entire package, rechecked it ten times and sent it. And then it was just a matter of waiting. At that time, I still hadtwo dollars. As a result, I had to write at work and askprepayment because the dog was already involved in this adventure with me, and I didn’t want us to starve together. 🐶
🕐 Struggle with technical support
In the compliance ticket, where I attached the entire package of documents, it was written that the review takesup to 72 hours. Okay, I think I’ll wait. But those 72 hours werethe longest and most nervousrecently. The promised deadline arrives — nothing. The ticket still has the status“under consideration”.
I decide to contact a live agent via chat support.
I write and explain the situation, and I get a standard response.:
“Your request has been escalated to the EDD compliance department. Please wait 24-48 hours.”
Well, I think I’ll wait another two days. The next day, the answer really comes. But not the one I was hoping for.
The message says thatThey were not satisfied with the submitted documents— especially those related to taxes and registration of private activities. Apparently, they just didn’t understand the format of the documents from another country. At that moment, I began to feeldoubts that I will be able to regain access to the account at all. It felt like I was in administrative hell, where your briefcase was just “hanging in line,” and you were helplessly watching time run out and money was frozen. I started surfing the Internet, looking for cases of people who found themselves in a similar situation. And as it turned out,There are hundreds of such stories.. People are regularly blocked, and not everyone gets access back. After a long search, I came across guys who deal with similar cases and advise on compliance processes. They helped me.create a text explanationto my documents, and also advised to addbank statement for the last three monthsas an additional confirmation of the source of income. I completed everything, completed the package, wrote a clear explanation and sent it all over again for verification.
✅ Culmination — Unblocking
The next day, when I have completely stopped expecting anything, an email arrives from Bybit.
Briefly: The verification has been completed, and the trading and withdrawal functions have been restored. Additionally, they warned that operations with a number of addresses are prohibited, and listed them in the letter. Honestly, I exhaled at that moment. I was on the train with a puppy, the Airbnb lease was running out, and I had zero money. It was the same ” rattling of the rails” when you realize that a couple of incorrect clicks a year and a half ago could leave you without funds in another country.
🧭 What I learned from this story
- “Not your keys, not your coins.”The exchange is not a wallet. Keeping a pillow there for life is a bad idea.
- Storage is distributed only.Multiple wallets (cold/hot), multiple platforms, multiple bank cards.
- Fiat cushion is required.A minimum of 2-4 weeks of basic expenses in an affordable fiat (and a bit of cash), especially when traveling.
- Make an archive of evidence.Store the TXID, replenishment screenshots, on – ramp receipts (Mercuryo, etc.), and photos of cards/banking details in an encrypted cloud.
- Avoid “gray” counterparties.Even if the transaction is old and without malicious intent, subsequent partner sanctions can “retroactively” turn it into a trigger for blocking.
- Plan B in case of blockage.A set of instructions: как быстро собрать доказательства происхождения средств, какие документы приложить, как писать пояснение.
- Support is a marathon.A clear text statement + additional documents (statements for 3 months, confirmation of self – employed/contractor status, tax receipts) helps.
A source: https://habr.com/ru/articles/959514/
