In May 2023, a topic was raised on a cryptocurrency forum concerning the unlawful withholding of a large sum of funds by user ManSmile. According to user ManSmile, on April 13, he conducted 9 exchange operations within the non-custodial Exodus wallet for a total amount of $350,942. Eight of the nine transactions got stuck in a pending status, and the third-party service criptointercambio.com demanded that he undergo a KYC procedure. The user provided all the requested documents, including statements for an already closed bank account from 2021, but the funds continued to be held under the pretext of verification. According to user ManSmile, an independent check of his address showed an AML risk level of only 17%, which falls into the "green zone" and is not a valid reason for blocking.

During the discussion of the incident, experienced forum members pointed out a systemic problem with Exodus's partner integrations. According to user holydarkness, similar situations had already occurred with another Exodus partner — N.Exchange. He recommended drawing attention to the problem through social media, particularly on Reddit. Users JollyGood and coin-investor emphasized that Exodus bears direct responsibility for choosing questionable third parties, as users trust the wallet platform, not the independent exchanges.

Trying to recover the funds, according to user ManSmile, he began looking for lawyers and consulted an international law firm. In addition, he attempted to attract the attention of Exodus management on Twitter, but, according to him, the company blocked his account to avoid public exposure.

The severity of the situation was also confirmed by another forum member, user Davosh2110, who reported facing a similar problem with an amount of $100,000.

The conflict was resolved by May 23, 2023. According to user ManSmile, he managed to recover all the withheld funds in full. The main problem, according to him, remained the prolonged delay — the money was inaccessible for over a month, which disrupted his financial plans. Discussion participants, including user judeafante, recommended updating the topic title to mark it as resolved, but noted that Exodus did not provide a public apology or compensation for the downtime of the funds. User JollyGood added that the exact circumstances of the return remained undisclosed, but the very fact of the delay caused reputational damage to the wallet.