Bitcoin Forum

After several years of operation, what was once the largest and most respected crypto exchange has announced that it is closing down. We could consider this an end of an era, even though Bittrex has already lost its prestigious spot in the crypto market years ago.

Here's their tweet about it:
https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/11/20/FrQPg.jpeg
https://twitter.com/BittrexGlobal/status/1726652430673121310

Here's the more detailed announcement from their website: https://bittrexglobal.com/.

I've been with Bittrex since 2018. It's just a bit of nostalgia.

Let's be honest here. Was anyone really using it? Their service was pretty bad – super high fees and customer service that was basically non-existent. So, it's not surprising they made this tough decision. Times has changed, and we've got alternatives now. To stay in the game, you've got to offer quality service without charging crazy fees. That's just how it is.

^ I just got the email today too. Actually have a smattering of coins there but nowhere near the minimum withdrawal so they join my family of dust wiped out at exchanges. They served me well several years back for quick fiat out -- hours in my account from withdrawal and negligible w/d fees. Bare minimum KYC too at the time. Also really handy for offloading lots of nonsense coins for BTC.

Gone are the days a person from my region could use these places for quick Bitcoin-fiat to multiple country bank accounts in hours.

RIP Bittrex. When Poloniex?

I think Bittrex is a United States based cryptocurrency exchange? The last time I knew about what was going on about them is just the regulations in United States that are not favoring crypto organizations in United States, especially the crypto exchanges. United States is becoming something else to crypto exchanges and many of them will noot be able to survive United States crypto regulatory environment.

I haven't used Bittrex and i do not know too much about the exchange because it isn't popular these days, maybe it was popular in the past, but this is another service winding down this year, and though Bittrex didn't give any reasons why they are winding down, but i guess it may be due to low trading volume.
I am not so sure, but i don't think Bittrex is winding down because of regulatory problem, all the times i have heard about this exchange, it is always from people who probably used them in the past, but they no longer do, so i guess they are shutting down because of low trading volume and they cannot compete for profits with other popular exchanges.

Yes, This was largest exchange in the US but in 2021 their market shares crumbles below 1% in 2021 which was big blow to this exchange. source (https://www.theblock.co/post/263875/bittrex-global-to-wind-down-operations-urges-customers-to-withdraw-funds)  Every exchange working under US regulator is in high risk and exchanges will face same issue like Binance US, Bittrex and many others. US regulatory team is not favoring Crypto exchange and might be they thinking of ETF which will not be totally decentralized like crypto exchange.

I haven't used this exchange as it was not allowed to do kyc in our country. I hope no one lost in this exchange as they allow customer to withdraw fund which is honest decision.

Bittrex was pivotal to the 2017 bull run and prior to binance launch, Bittrex was the goto exchange for big projects. It was a great experience to experience the exchange even though they never recovered from Binance dominance.

I enjoyed the exchanged but they made a lot of terrible chances that made users flock to other exchanges. For instance, their mandatory KYC at a time where top exchanges require no KYC.

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/11/21/F5AMa.png

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Looks like crypto winter is not over yet for some businesses.

At least they are not performing an exit scam or catastrophically imploded like FTX. So their reputation is at least preserved.


I'd like to think high fees were the reason that they went bust, but if that were true, then we'd have exchanges like Binance closing up shop a long time ago. So I'm not really sure.

I also received an email from Bittrex. I thought it was just a joke, but after I asked other friends, they confirmed the news. It is sad news because Bittrex still has a chance to grow its business.

But I don't know. We don't know the real reason that made them close their business. But at least Bittrex gives traders or investors the opportunity to withdraw all their assets before December 4. This could shake up the crypto market. We don't know who else will be next.

I remember I made huge profits from Bittrex and that will be a great memory. Well, at least I thank Bittrex for helping me get those profits before I moved to Binance. Goodbye Bittrex.

I think Bittrex US took the right decision of shutting down having been in a business environment where  exchange regulatory policies are harsh to the teeth. It didn't come as a surprise when I first read about the news, they had before now expressed interest of leaving the US after they were charged to court by the SEC some months ago for operating as an unregistered exchange.

On the other hand, the window given for withdrawal of funds to me is a short one and should have been at least by the end of Dec, 2023, the Dec, 4th 2023 rather interprets how much they are in a hurry to leave the US and, I can't blame them for that.

They were dead to me since the day they enforced KYC on their customers. Good riddance. I already KYC'ed on Binance and no I am not going to send my passport scan to every god damn exchange out there. That's the sensible thing to do in the end. It is best not to give your passport scan to any of those exchanges but we can't resist trading shitcoins somehow so limiting your exchange exposure to 1 is the second best thing you can do. That means Binance keep getting the majority of the users and more small exchanges will go down in the future. (if any left already)

Binance is no exception to this, who knows it may bite dust too. But Binance made more income revenues apart from the exchange platform so that maybe the difference with the exchanges that went bankrupt, but still not your keys not your cryptos.

I also received a notification from Coindesk today and yeah it's the end of an era and hope this crypto winter ends soon.

Not even enough to exchange for some other coin that can be withdrawn?

I too have lost a lot of dust over the years and probably so has everyone else who trades.
That is the one thing I do like about CoinEx, they have a button that will convert your dust to their CEX token.
Which also has crap value but at least it's all in 1 token / coin.

-Dave

They are making a lot of BTC from this.
Probally more than they ever will remaining in operation.
All those old locked accounts that couldn't get verified from pre kyc days.
All those dust account.Inactive accounts. People that died or got incarcerated ECT.
Remember you don't set up beneficiaries and stuff with these accounts so they just treat it as unclaimed property
Theres still millions unclaimed in us accounts. (Deadlines past due)
But then again I don't really remember what started this downfall they may be up to their neck in fines and stuff, idk.

regulators finished off the exchange       RIP

Could they possibly make more money from inactive accounts after winding down, than they would have made if they are still operating, this is a very strong claim. I know every centralized service that winds down, would surely have accounts that cannot withdraw their funds and the service would probably claim it, but does the amount really sum up to something substantial? There is no way to even be sure it does if you agree to that.

There is currently no deadline on Bittrex withdrawals and i believe so many people who haven't used the exchange for a long time would try to log in and withdraw what they have remaining there after receiving the email, except it is dust that is below the minimum withdrawal.

Reading those closing words on that Tweet made me felt sad. I don't know but because yes, it's an end of an era. We've known it all that bittrex was once of the biggest in the past years and seeing them go like this is kind of making me emotional. I'm not a fan of theirs and used them not that long but that's it, I'm just feeling emotional right now that this can happen to any exchange that have been big during their prime.

Yeah, there's no exact deadline yet but they've mentioned to withdraw all funds ASAP. It can be anytime that they wish to or when they're done already. Usually, they're giving a few months or less than half a year until the full shutdown happens.

I remember having an account there way back 2018 , i rarely use them only for certain coins but i stop using them after they asked kyc in stupid way.
But yeah, it is unfortunately sad to see another exchange shutdowns due to regulatory compliance and with more diferent reasons.

I thought Kucoin and Binance were launched in the same year and despite having similar operations like launchpad and token burning, even as Binance dominate, they remain relevant till today because they houses more low cap projects and many of them done well in performance. If Kucoin can survive all that, then they don't have excuse go fail, look even Houbi that was sold many times is functioning well.

I like the way centralized exchanges are bitting the dust, it will bring more innovation about decentralized exchange that will be faster, secure and more easy to use like the way people value centralized exchanges. Especially now that CZ is not longer the face behind Binance, dex can do better to improve their services, they will get customers.

It was the Binance before Binance came, but I think Bittrex had a better reputation than Binance during its peak. It helped that it was a US company, although it eventually shut down its US operation and left the country due to a hostile regulatory environment.


I was also a bit emotional upon reading the news. It's not because another centralized exchange is about to die; it was because Bittrex played a central role in my newbie years. Although I ditched it a long time ago, the news evoked some nostalgia. One of my largest Bitcoin purchases in those early years was made there. And I also made some nice money with the platform. I can still remember those years when admission to the exchange more or less means the project has some potential or legit. And listing there is almost always followed by a strong pump. Bittrex wasn't as cheap as the likes of HitBTC back then. For an altcoin to make it to Bittrex means a lot.

It was neither large nor respected anymore, at least not since 2017. It was also bankrupt for the past couple of years, they just kept it alive artificially and by scamming their users.
You can see the trust summary of their representative on bitcointalk here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=96390
You can also read my topic on how they stole a lot of money from their users overnight: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2406054.0

Basically in early 2017 they lost the competition to up and coming platforms like Binance. So they decided to start scamming to make some money. From there they lost all their revenue and users slowly but surely.
I'm honestly surprised they kept their scam business alive this long.

Already earlier this year there were signs that the end for Bittrex was coming soon. Some very bad decisions, they were among the first to introduce mandatory KYC, even at a time when there was not so much pressure for it. I'm not surprised by what's happening, more like you, I wonder how the hell they managed to last so long. If I remember correctly, they left the US because they were doing business illegally

Bittrex Files for Bankruptcy in Delaware (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5452148.0)
Bittrex to shut its U.S operations (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5447061.0)

No doubt about that. Bittrex has been one of the contributors to the growth of the crypto market. They've played a significant role before the taking over of Binance. It's also the time that KYC wasn't really a thing for most exchanges until it's being enforced because of the government pressure.

I agree, that's where it has started. This time, when we see it to the common exchanges when an alt is being listed, the pumped is followed but before that. It has happened there and bittrex and compared to hitbtc, well, I don't want to get into that exchange because it's not as good as the ones that we have before and presently.

One exchange went down the mountain, after hotbit some time ago, I remember when there was still a balance there, for bitrex I have no assets and have withdrawn it. exchanges are not about ratings or everything to remember, bittrex I think there are also quite a lot of users.

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Some people argue about their KYC data in an exchange that has already been sent and maybe it's been a few years ago, I think it's hard to guess which exchanges will last for a definite time limit, I myself sent kyc data because there was a crypto gift exchange on the exchange, and without a long thought for kyc, although there are exchanges that do not require kyc.

Exchange is a business service, it is natural that competition for entry fees, selling, buying, or withdrawing from them, I realize that the liquidity of each exchange is different, I think the existence of bittrex during its heyday there are people who feel helped and often use its services even though it is only used hit and run. The weakness of the exchange is that it can close at any time and it is only the exchange itself that finds it difficult and they decide that they have to do it.

It has nothing to do with the US and regulations.
One must think before blaming them of a simple question, how would it be possible for every exchange that opens up to keep going ?
It's not, so just as other businesses exchanges lose volume, lose clients an go bankrupt.

The US based company behind Bittrex US filled for bankruptcy half a year ago, this is Bittrex global which should not give a damn about those since they target international clients, but, they have no more clients at all, so the global branch goes after the the US one. We have 200 spot exchanges, some, like 90% of them need to go!