Bitcoin Forum

Dear Bitcoin community and ExchB customers,

ExchB is closing.

First, we would like to assure our customers that all funds and Bitcoins deposited with us are available for withdrawal.

Over the past few months, we’ve enjoyed bringing a high-quality, easy-to-use exchange service to the Bitcoin community we thank each and every one of you who used the service, provided suggestions, or helped us spread the word. We believe Bitcoin has a bright future and look forward to the many developments that are sure to come.  Unfortunately, the cost in time and money of running ExchB and the funds required to take it to the next level will exceed our available resources.

As of October 16th, 2011, we have stopped trading and deposit activity on the exchange.

All funds and Bitcoins must be withdrawn by October 24th, 2011. For customers who have made large funding transactions, we may request additional information before processing withdrawals. If this is the case, you will receive an email with additional details. Bitcoin withdrawals will be manually approved regardless of amount.

Lastly, we have in development a merchant solution for Bitcoin that provides price stability for customers and removes confirmation delay.  Anyone interested in acquiring and further developing these technologies should contact us.

Thank you,

David Sterry, President
Exchange Bitcoins Inc.

Sorry to hear that, David, but I'm certain you wouldn't be doing this unless you had something even bigger in the pipeline.  Looking forward to seeing what's you've got in the works.

Yes, I really hope this is the case as well..

I think all "cart" and merchant systems of the like are very important to the bitcoin community as a whole.

Good luck! make us proud!

Sorry to hear that. I guess this is one of the consequences of low volumes. ExchB was one of the top exchanges though. I hope we don't see a lot of exchanges closing. I like to have other options beside MtGox...

Yeah, and for those of us in the USA it was really cool how ExchB would let you deposit cash at a bank and have it available for trading within an hour... pretty sure that was far and away the fastest way to turn cash into BTC.

Are you emailing all of your clients?  7 days is a very short window for redeeming their deposits so you need to do everything you possibly can to ensure that your customers are aware of the need to act quickly.

Sorry to hear about this, as said above you, you guys definitely shook things up with the depositing cash at an ATM to get the Bitcoin.  I hope other exchanges take advantage of clever little ways to do business like that.  Good luck to you and your people in your next projects.

We're emailing all of our clients now. We'll make sure to follow up with those who have not acted as the deadline approaches.

Why close the doors? Why not sell the Xchange?

I'll buy for $500! Serious!

Hi David,
       It is unfortunate to hear that an excellent service like ExchB is closing.  It was also an absolute pleasure to meet you in person at the NYC conference, and wish you all the best with your next venture.

Thank you,
       Keyur

Doh!  I was planning to diversify and start using ExchB, though the low price has gotten even me down so I may not have followed through very soon.  I'm a shitty customer for exchanges, though, since I don't actually trade much.  (OTOH, I don't play scummy chargeback games or have a lot of red flags requiring a lot of financial research either.)

Thanks for being one shining examples of a Bitcoin enterprise who was straight up and exited with dignity.  I'm not surprised...it's gotta be a tough row to hoe in the exchange business for a couple of diverse reasons.  Hope to see you back at better times, and I'm sure that you've achieved some respect and trust from other people besides just me.

Any funds not claimed do not become the property of ExchB.  They're in California, so unclaimed funds have to be turned into the California State Controller's Office (http://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-UPD/outreach_rptg_hol_genrptinfo.pdf) unclaimed property unit. There's a US-wide system in place to get the money back to its rightful owner.

ExchB is a very good exchange. best wishes.

I just put in my withdraw.  Sorry to see you guys go.  You're everything I wanted in an exchange: convenient to get fiat in and out, a simple website, good customer service, and a nice local office we could go burn down if you screwed us out of our BTC. :)  In all seriousness the US presence with no silly anonymity games is why I was comfortable leaving my money with you, and it's why I'll be interested in any other services you offer in the future.

Honestly I'm surprised you lasted this long.  I know you were running a tight shop, but there's just not enough transaction volume in the present market to support so many exchanges.

Sad to see you go after you were doing everything right, and thanks for a good run.

I think Mtgox maybe want to acquire all the the business of ExchB.

well great, I can kiss my 11 cents in my account goodbye.   I could've bought a tootsie roll with that!   >:(

in all seriousness, this sucks.  I loved the bank account cash deposit feature

Some powerful people paid these guys a visit. A very one sided NDA has been signed so they can't talk about it for fear of repercussions, now it's my duty to spill the beans.

They got pressured into closing down by the powers that be and more exchanges will be following soon.

Mt.Gox has been able to avoid this so far because they are based in Japan. Plans are in place to get them shut down as well, it's just taking longer than they would like.

For any ExchB users who don't already know.  MtGox now accepts cash deposits (https://mtgox.com/press_release_20111017.html).

I am sorry to see you guys go.   It was great meeting you guys at the BTC conference in New York.

Proof or GTFO.

Just move their corporate office to be incorporated in BVI etc, safe and sound.

It's plausible enough (to me) to earn a spot in my list of hypotheses.

Concern over just such a thing caused me to start accumulating more aggressively than I would have otherwise some months ago, and contributed to my decision to just go ahead to fill up my desired quota of BTC last night.

A major on negative concerning this hypothesis is that it is not really needed to explain ExchB calling it quits.  Unless they have significant dark pool activity it doesn't seem like there is much money in things and all the AML stuff must be a true nightmare to deal with.

If there is an element of truth to this hypothesis, I would say that, ironically, what badly wounded Bitcoin was probably the 'money bomb' for the Occupy-X stuff and funding of stuff like Wikileaks.  It is actually one of the few things that Bitcoin is genuinely good for as long as our fiat systems are working well enough for Joe Sixpack.  IMHO.

I know everyone loves a good conspiracy theory, but no.

If you want to go for conspiracy theories, the "Powers that be" are not going to make such a ham-fisted move as sending in the g-men or whatever to go harass a small exchange.  Getting caught would draw way too much attention to Bitcoin and undermine their cause; Bitcoin's doing just fine screwing itself up with its own tragic-comedy act right now.  If they want to screw with us, they'll hire a couple more guys like Bruce, or set up some more joke exchanges like B7, or any of a hundred other hatchet-jobs to undermine our credibility.

I easily believe ExchB is just economics.  Look at it this way:

http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/chart.png?width=800&m=exchbUSD&k=&r=360&i=Daily&c=0&s=&e=&Prev=&Next=&v=1&cv=1&ps=0&l=0&p=0&t=&b=&a1=&m1=10&a2=&m2=25&x=0&i1=&i2=&i3=&i4=&SubmitButton=Draw&

They were moving $5k of volume per day.  Their cut is 1% = $50/day = $1500 per month.  That's simply not enough to keep the lights on in a Redwood City office and still put food on the table.

To grow it they'd have to promote like mad.  That would either mean digging deeper into their pockets to pay for advertising (I can't blame them for deciding to simply exit with the current BTC climate), try some grass-roots promotion (was it ever more than one guy?  I can't fault him for focusing on operations instead of getting drawn into the forums all day) or start a referral link program (I can't blame them for avoiding the fires of hell).

In their shoes I'd do the same thing:  Exit gracefully, bank some goodwill, and preserve some capital to start up something with better prospects.  They can always get back into this later if the market explodes.

I don't believe that it is terribly far fetched to believe that aggravating funding is a good way to damage an effort, or to note that it can and does happen on occasion.

But I agree that the simplest explanation tends to be the strongest one, and in this case it really does not seem to be the case that the money was there to support the enterprise as a money making effort.

it's not a conspiracy...   if prices keep falling like this eventually all the exchanges will close.   You can't make money from nothing.. and if BTC go down to hardly anything then there is nothing to keep them open.

Everyone here loves the idea of a free market,  well... this is how the free market works.

printing nearly 5 bitcoins a minute isn't helping either.

I could care less about proof, but can you at least make the story more believable?   A good sound conspiracy theory has at least some reference to some kind of specifics.  Powerful people paid by.. government?  Private person?    What could have possibly been in that NDA?  What was ExchB doing that the others are or were not?

~weex could pop up and say that this is utter bullshit if he wanted to.  It would be unlikely that he would be obligated under the 'top secret NDA' to actively defend the 'conspiricy'.  Though possible I suppose, especially if there were some kicker involved.

If I were in his shoes, however, I would stay mum and try to derive some enjoyment out of whatever whacky theories crop up.

It's not hard to figure out. Think about what ExchB did before any other exchanges, it's not hidden they made a big deal out of it on these very forums. That's why they were targeted first.

This sucks and makes me sad.  You were the BEST exchange period. Cash to bitcoins in an hours time.

I cry. It's like Spock dying in Star Trek II.

- Blackout

At the current prices I had stopped mining and was buying at ExchB. Guess it's time to fire up the old 5830s again.

Oh, okay, yeah, the ATM thing.  I can see how someone could be mad.   I'm just not sure who.  Or why an NDA is involved, is some big press release coming up?  Or a big arrest!?  Spill more beans!  Gossssippp  This is all going in the video game https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=48088.msg579028#msg579028

Hi,

I'm looking for help to withdraw my remaining 71.44$
Their withdrawal page says International wire has a 45$ fee + I don't know how to match the required routing + account number to my European IBAN.

I'd rather go for btcs or an MtGox redeemable code.
Maybe someone with a Paxum account can do me the favor.

Thanks in advance.

I'm in the same situation. Hopefully they will sort things out for international users...

We're debating a way to honor ExchB withdrawals. Possibly work out a system where the Paxum is withdrawn to our account, and we can credit you with a MtGox Coupon Code or Transfer it to your TradeHill account for a small fee. Is this something you'd be interested in?

Offer the OPTION of taking BTC at the current rate of one of the other exchanges for withdrawals of USD.  Also offer the OPTION of a check.  Not everyone will want those options, but those will work for many. 

I can offer the option of withdrawing USD--> USD, and BTC--> BTC, but not cross currencies.

Your accounts can be credited your usd/btc amount in Tadehill or Mtgox

Checks are an option.  That's how I did my withdraw.

I certainly wish they had announced this closure before ending trading.  That would have let people trade to their preferred currency for withdrawal.  Exchb always had enough arbitrageurs to handle that without the market going nuts.

Sent them an email about it 24h ago, no answer yet.
I'm afraid with such a trade freeze and 1 week notice to gtfo, we might be left with the available options.


As long as the fee's reasonable and this is stated publicly, sure. MtGox or TradeHill will do for me.

Of course  :D It would be an option on Bitinstant.com

Dozens of members on this forum use us on a daily basis, we've moved over 200k in USD since end of August.

Hello,

If anyone needs a low cost withdrawal option of USD, please request a check. We'll send them internationally at no charge.

We would ask just that you cash the check as soon as it is received to help us close our books asap.

Thank you,

David

Well thanks, I guess that could do in last resort, but it will take long and I'm pretty sure my bank will charge significantly to cash an USD check.
Do you mind us considering the Bitinstant option first?


Fair enough, can we proceed then?

I would also prefer something via Bitinstant to TradeHill/MtGox. How do international checks work anyway? Can I just walk into the bank with an American check and cash it? I predict a lot of fees....

If only there was some automated way of transferring value.....

Quickly....

Internationally....

With almost no fees.....

I am at a total loss!

Oh wait....  again....  Why not just give the option of using the mtgox or tradehill rate, and send the user coins to their address if they like that option.

They could keep the exchange operational for a while longer, but disable deposits and only allow bids to be placed.  Exchb could then hit those bids with some reasonably fair rate compared with the other exchanges.  That would let people convert whatever dollars they want into bitcoins and then withdraw those to wherever.  At the end of some period of time, you then just mail out checks for whatever dollars there are remaining.

I consulted my bank's pricing and there is a 60€ tax for cashing international checks so it is cheaper to send a wire.

Meanwhile, I am selling my account (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=48599.0), if anyone wants to help me out.

Problem solved using Bitinstant.

The BitInstant option is a good one as it removes ExchB having to mail checks internationally and any uncertainty about fees on the other end. Anyone interested in that should contact Yankee.

It may be a couple of weeks before all the funds are out but I've inititated transfers today to Paxum that should cover all international withdrawals.

Thanks,

David

Bitinstant just deposited my money into my TradeHill account so everything worked out great. Thanks for the help.

Just redeemed a Mt Gox coupon. Very good deal from Bitinstant.
Thanks Yankee