Bittrex, an American crypto exchange, disclosed on Friday, the 31st of March 2023 that it would be shutting down its operations in the United States.
In the issued statement, Bittrex announced that customers’ assets are safe and they should be withdrawn before the 30th is April 2023. US customers can also continue to trade on the platform till the 13th of April 2023.
To be crystal clear on the shutting down, Bittrex stated that only its United States operation will be halted as it would continue to serve customers outside the US.
Speaking on this decision, the co-founder and CEO are Bittrex, Ritchie Lai said “It’s just not economically viable for us to continue to operate in the current U.S. regulatory and economic environment.” According to him, the regulatory requirements are always vague and they are enforced without appropriate mutual understanding which leads to uneven competitive ground. This has also made its operation in the US less feasible.
Bittrex paid $29 million to the US authorities as a settlement for violating sanctions against Iran, Syria and Cuba.
This announcement comes as a response to the recent crackdown on crypto firms by the U.S. authorities.
The US Security and Exchange Commission has recently issued a fine to several cryptocurrency companies. One of the most recent to be fined was Kraken.
Similarly to this, Coinbase was issued a Wells Notice last week. According to the SEC, the reason for the good notice is related to the firm’s staking products which, according to them, constitute unregistered securities.
Also on their crackdown spree, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has sued the largest cryptocurrency exchange by market cap, Binance. According to them, Binance has violated some derivatives and trading rules.
Bittrex is a Seattle-based company founded in 2013. Before it announced its shutdown, it was the 71st largest digital asset company, with $11.7 million as its 24-hour trading volume.
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