Cryptocurrency Exchange Bittrex is ceasing operations in the United States due to dwindling volumes in the country and what is being deemed as a result of regulatory uncertainty. This announcement was made by Bittrex’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Richie Lai. He noted that the exchange's US volumes had dropped to less than one percent of the market and the US's regulatory environment had become “economically non-viable” for them to continue operations.

The regulatory uncertainty in the US cryptocurrency industry has come to the forefront in recent months, highlighted by comments from Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz about the possibility of a widespread regulatory crackdown. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Genslert responded to this by saying that he believes there is no need for additional legislation in the industry.

In addition to regulatory uncertainty, Bittrex has been seeing dwindling trade volumes in the US. The Block's data shows that Bittrex's US-based Bitcoin (BTC) volume shrunk from near 23% in 2018 to less than 1% in 2021. Its BTC transaction volume in the past 24 hours was only 4.5 million USD. Steven Zheng, The Block's Research Director noted, “Their [Bittrex’s] volume in the US is low enough that it isn’t worth the effort to continue maintaining operations.”

The exchange has also dealt with legal troubles in the US, such as the Office of Foreign Asset Control filing a 29 million USD settlement against Bittrex for facilitating supposedly sanctioned transactions from 2014 to 2017, and being denied the BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services.

The withdrawal process for customers with “verification requirements” is expected to be completed by April 30. It was assured by Richie Lai that customer funds are safe and that he will now be focusing on helping Bittrex’s “Global” branch to succeed outside the US. Customers from other locations apart from the US will not be affected by this decision.



Other News from Today