Bitcoin Forum

Service Changes for U.S. Customers

Bitfinex is making changes to the services we provide to U.S. individuals. These changes impact the verification process and trading of certain digital tokens for U.S. customers. Some changes are effective immediately, and others will be gradually implemented in the coming weeks.

Suspension of U.S. Individual Verification Requests

We regret to announce that, effective immediately, we will no longer be accepting verification requests for U.S. individuals.

We have for some time considered pulling away from the retail marketplace in the U.S., and now with a current backlog of verification requests and ongoing difficulties in providing USD deposit and withdrawals for U.S. individuals, we feel that the time has come to begin disengaging from U.S. retail customers.

Several factors have gone into this decision:

    While we have been able to normalize banking for some corporate customers and individuals in certain jurisdictions, compliant banking solutions for U.S. individuals remain elusive. We have been slowly and selectively inviting users in particular jurisdictions who meet set criteria to start using banking channels that have come online. This process is ongoing.
    A surprisingly small percentage of our revenues come from verified U.S. individual accounts while a dramatically outsized portion of our resources goes into servicing the needs of U.S. individuals, including support, legal and regulatory.
    We anticipate the regulatory landscape to become even more challenging in the future.
    Bitfinex is not based in the United States. Exchanges based in the U.S. are better positioned to properly service retail U.S. customers.

We are thankful to all of our loyal U.S. customers that have consistently traded with us but, unfortunately, we have an obligation to our whole customer base and to our shareholders to make rational resource allocation decisions.

Furthermore, over the next 90 days, we will be discontinuing services to our existing U.S. individual customers. We will be communicating further with affected users on timing and specifics. Our intention is to reduce disruption as much as possible for our U.S. customers.

We will continue to take advice and implement further changes as circumstances warrant.

Restrictions on U.S. Persons Trading Certain Digital Tokens

Pursuant to the recent report of investigation issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Bitfinex is taking the proactive step of barring U.S. customers from trading certain digital tokens that may be deemed securities in the eyes of the SEC.

The restriction will generally apply to ERC20 tokens issued through "ICOs" and will go into effect at noon UTC on Wednesday, August 16, 2017. No trading of these tokens will be allowed for U.S. customers. At the time of this post, the tokens active on Bitfinex that will be subject to this restriction are EOS (EOS) and Santiment (SAN).

Once again, we regret any inconvenience this change in policy might create, but we believe this to be a prudent measure given the regulatory uncertainty surrounding such digital assets.

Bitfinex can go to hell.

What am I supposed to do with my portfolio on Bitfinex?

Furthermore, over the next 90 days, we will be discontinuing services to our existing U.S. individual customers. We will be communicating further with affected users on timing and specifics. Our intention is to reduce disruption as much as possible for our U.S. customers.

Bitfinex can go to hell.

What am I supposed to do with my portfolio on Bitfinex?

They are leaving because of the regulations, poloniex has changed its terms of service I suppose it is for the same reason


"Bitfinex explained that “a surprisingly small percentage of our revenues come from verified U.S. individual accounts.” Meanwhile, “a dramatically outsized portion of our resources goes into servicing the needs of U.S. individuals, including support, legal and regulatory.” Citing that it has been able to “normalize banking for some corporate customers and individuals in certain jurisdictions,” Bitfinex admitted that “compliant banking solutions for U.S. individuals remain elusive.” "

So what happens to the US users will they be allowed to withdraw their coins,since they have taken this decision all of a sudden they did not even give the users the opportunity to withdraw before they implement these rules,since we have many exchanges this is not a big deal but my problem is they have to inform the users beforehand before implementing something like this.

So what happens to the US users will they be allowed to withdraw their coins,since they have taken this decision all of a sudden they did not even give the users the opportunity to withdraw before they implement these rules,since we have many exchanges this is not a big deal but my problem is they have to inform the users beforehand before implementing something like this.

https://www.bitfinex.com/posts/216

Seems like that they are scared by the fact that BTC-e basically got brutally taken down by the US government, and they want to vaoid the US government as much as they can because they know that even with their KYC standards it might not be enough.

And plus as they said the effort and money put into handling US side of things is just too large.

Most of Bitfinex's users aren't even US citizens, meaning that discontinuing US users will lessen their profit, just not by a very large margin at all.

Just use some other exchange if you're in US and still want to trade. Most of them are still open for US, but some ban specific states.

Well, I do see this as a bad think neither for US people not for the rest of us. If a service acts like that as is afraid of being taken down, this usually means they have something to hide or they re involved in some illegal shit. Why would I use that kind of service? Crypto s NOT about scamming people and doing market manipulation.

So I d say, fuck you Bitfinex. I m from Europe and your ban does not apply to me (yet) but you will not see a single satoshi from me.

Excellent decision by finex its too risky to deal with USA who can shut you down at anytime they feel like it.  It happened with poker before and im surprised exchanges have even been dealing with the US up to now anyway.  This sucks for my fellow US crypto friends so i hope you find other solutions.

Exchanges continue to serve US residents because it's such a huge market. That's why Pokerstars did it, flouting the law the whole time. Bitfinex might say that verified US users are small part of their customer base (I don't even believe that). Unverified US customers definitely form a big part of their base. They are just trying to cover their ass.

Bitfinex can go to hell.

What am I supposed to do with my portfolio on Bitfinex?

"Furthermore, over the next 90 days, we will be discontinuing services to our existing U.S. individual customers"

Well, I do see this as a bad think neither for US people not for the rest of us. If a service acts like that as is afraid of being taken down, this usually means they have something to hide or they re involved in some illegal shit. Why would I use that kind of service? Crypto s NOT about scamming people and doing market manipulation.

So I d say, fuck you Bitfinex. I m from Europe and your ban does not apply to me (yet) but you will not see a single satoshi from me.

Seems like that they are scared by the fact that BTC-e basically got brutally taken down by the US government, and they want to vaoid the US government as much as they can because they know that even with their KYC standards it might not be enough.

And plus as they said the effort and money put into handling US side of things is just too large.

Most of Bitfinex's users aren't even US citizens, meaning that discontinuing US users will lessen their profit, just not by a very large margin at all.

Just use some other exchange if you're in US and still want to trade. Most of them are still open for US, but some ban specific states.

Could Bitfinex, the world's largest, Hong-Kong based cryptocurrency exchange, be headed for a Mt. Gox-style collapse? It's starting to look that way.

When Mt. Gox first halted customer withdrawals in February 2014, it waited more than two weeks to admit the truth to its customers: that hackers had stolen more than $450 million of their assets, leaving the exchange bankrupt and them holding the bag.  That hack effectively crippled the entire digital currency ecosystem, ushering in a two-year bear market that at one point carried the bitcoin price below $200, from what was then a record high north of $1,200 reached in November 2013.

So when another exchange engages in similarly shady behavior - withholding critical information about customer funds, or failing to produce audited financials despite promising to do so - it should prompt crypto traders to ask themselves why, with dozens, if not hundreds, of cryptocurrency exchanges operating around the world, they're choosing to do business with this one.

What is stopping any US citizen from simply opening up a new BFX account?
It is not necessary to verify your account at all if you deposit and withdraw only
in cryptos.

I see the reasoning behind their decision, but I think practically you can
still continue to use their exchange, if you want to do it.

This is because US government considers US citizens their property, it is called serfdom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom

They also think they own the planet.... >:(

Too many Americans are idiots so they cannot see this and vote for Ron Paul.  ;)

I have to say that as an American I'm getting increasingly frustrated with how our government is pushing back on crypto.  I see other countries looking for ways to work with this new industry and all I see from our government is ways to regulate or flat out ban it.  I'm going to head over to petition.whitehouse.gov and create a petition to back off of crypto.  I know it wont do anything but we have to start somewhere.

I wouldn't jump into conclusions that fast. Don't forget that the US government can pull off random reasons just to shut down businesses, not to mention we're talking about cryptocurrencies here. Which they might see as competition or a threat to their fiat. Also, maybe they're gonna disallow US citizens because of the same reason why ICOs are not allowed in the US?

I have to say that as an American I'm getting increasingly frustrated with how our government is pushing back on crypto.  I see other countries looking for ways to work with this new industry and all I see from our government is ways to regulate or flat out ban it.  I'm going to head over to petition.whitehouse.gov and create a petition to back off of crypto.  I know it wont do anything but we have to start somewhere.

https://www.bitfinex.com/posts/216

They probably saw what happened with BTC-e and decided to bail out sooner rather than later.

Not sure why they would still offer unverified services for US citizens, though. Pretty sure the only things that will be discontinued from the next 90 days would be US citizens' ability to obtain a verified account, and deposit and withdraw from their site. They can still access Bitfinex without any issues, it's just that they can't deposit using USD, withdraw using USD, or trade specific tokens.

If they are going to shut down the US market then at least do it properly and block all incoming traffic.

Also, are previously verified accounts going to stay verified? Since they said that they are "no longer" accepting verifications.

In this particular instance, don't be upset, your govt may have saved you from a MtGox scenario. There have been a number of flags over bitfinex for some time - their mysterious hack last year, the high withdrawal fees etc.

yea that's all I did, clicked that box and said I'm not a us resident - are they that stupid?  finally transferred the rest of my IOTA out of there to binance - not many options for iota if you don't want hardware wallet (which I could never get working) ..  it's unfortunate our government is so evil and bitfinex are cowards. bye bye bitfinex

This message is further to our announcement of August 11, 2017, with respect to terminating our business with U.S. individual customers. As indicated in the announcement, we are terminating trading, deposits, and withdrawal functionality for U.S. individual customers by no later than November 9, 2017. U.S. customers are already barred from receiving financing from other users on Bitfinex’s peer-to-peer financing platform. This restriction will remain and, in addition, U.S. individual customers will no longer be able to provide financing on Bitfinex effective November 9, 2017.

All U.S. individual users must make arrangements to withdraw their Digital Tokens by November 9th.

U.S. individuals holding Recovery Right Tokens (RRTs), if any, which relate to the exchange of now-defunct BFX tokens to equity in iFinex Inc., may, starting on October 27, 2017, sell all of their RRTs on the exchange, if they so elect. This is an exception to the general terms of use for RRTs. U.S. individuals are not permitted to buy RRTs during this time period. All terms and conditions relating to the sale of any RRTs remain in full force and effect and are deemed to apply to the sale of any RRTs by U.S. individuals or otherwise. Any RRTs remaining in the hands of U.S. individual verified customers after the November 9th deadline may be sold through Bitfinex on an OTC basis through special arrangement with us.

Well, it's official.  I'm disappointed but at least I know the plan now.  We have until November 9th to remove all coins from Bitfinex; afterwards all trading, deposits, and withdrawals will be blocked.

Good. I'm very happy with this decision. They're going the same way as Swiss banks. US customers bring too many problems. Most banks in most countries, and most financial institutions everywhere in the world, are just telling Americans to stay at home.
Sorry sir, we don't want to do business with you.
That's what you hear when you're an American abroad nowadays. If Trump would kill FATCA and the International taxation of US citizens instead of wrecking the deal with Iran, it could change.

Good. I'm very happy with this decision. They're going the same way as Swiss banks. US customers bring too many problems. Most banks in most countries, and most financial institutions everywhere in the world, are just telling Americans to stay at home.
Sorry sir, we don't want to do business with you.
That's what you hear when you're an American abroad nowadays. If Trump would kill FATCA and the International taxation of US citizens instead of wrecking the deal with Iran, it could change.

You saying that it has a political motivation behind here not wanting US citizens because they bring more harm than good?

But If I'm a US citizen, I will take this news as another slap on the face because they will lose a lot of opportunity to do trading. The only recourse of action is to really take it somewhere else. Maybe Bitfinex is really afraid that they will be the next BTC-E, being targeted by US authorities so they make this moved to avoid problems. But I don't think this is fair to all US citizens who are trading legally and not doing any money laundering or any illegal acts.

There were also many Americans with a Swiss or Singaporean bank account who weren't cheating on their taxes. But nowadays, it's next to impossible to open a bank account in those countries if you're holding an American passport. Well, unless you have an introducer, and some very legit fully explainable import-export business. Bitfinex is only a small new element. Other exchanges, QuadrigaCX or Gatecoin also, block American users. I'm sorry if you're American, but most banks and exchanges just want to avoid trouble.

People are crapping on the Americans - but the thing is Bitfinex is dodgy. Their mysterious hack for example. It's no wonder the American regulators started asking questions.

Wasn't aware of that. I thought Bitfinex was doing that from its own initiative. Do you have any link to this request from American regulators? I don't see Bitfinex as dodgy. No more than Poloniex or Kraken (I have coins at all 3).

Wasn't aware of that. I thought Bitfinex was doing that from its own initiative. Do you have any link to this request from American regulators? I don't see Bitfinex as dodgy. No more than Poloniex or Kraken (I have coins at all 3).

All three seem to be poorly mismanaged exchanges. The common denominator is the countless complaints here and elsewhere on the world wide web about account access being denied or limited. I’m surprised you’re relaxed about keeping coins in these three exchanges. Storing coins in any exchange is too risky these days. Arbitrary and random account blockage are too scary for me to contemplate or experience. I don’t mind if they take their sweet time verifying an empty account but if they restrict access to coins stored on the account, that’s the painful bit. I would have sleepless nights worrying about those coins. Uncertainty is never a pleasant thing.

I'm not storing my coins. All are on orders, or on loans, and I've never had any trouble with any exchange so far. On Poloniex, when I look at my trade history, it's more than 100 pages, without any trouble. Well, I remember their server went down a few times, but I know those things happen.

I'm not storing my coins. All are on orders, or on loans, and I've never had any trouble with any exchange so far. On Poloniex, when I look at my trade history, it's more than 100 pages, without any trouble. Well, I remember their server went down a few times, but I know those things happen. I've also bought many cars at copart.com which many, many people say it's dodgy, but most of the time, everything has been fine for me. There's risk in every business, and I guess you shall not be afraid of some people complaining on the web. You just need to test a service for a while a first. My first time at an exchange, I go with $100. I'm doing a few trades, get my coins back, and if everything went fine, I invest some more. Note also that I'm using 3 exchanges (well, Bitstamp also), I don't put all my eggs in the same basket...

I've had nothing but good experiences on Poloniex, and I also realize that no service is perfect so it's not the (now aging) outages that concern me.  What concerns me about Poloniex is their total lack of communication around the outages.  If they would have simply recognized the outage, communicate status updates, and even go further to provide updates on upgrading their support group... then I'd feel more comfortable keeping my coin there.  There's also the fact that after 5-months I've yet to have my account verified; that tells me they either don't care or running on the bare minimum staff.