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Noticed now Bittrex going shutting down their services from 31 countries. According to Bittrex they attempt shut down their service from certain countries due to regulatory uncertainty. Here is the official announcemen. (https://bittrex.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360034965072-Important-Information-for-Bittrex-International-Customers), read it for more details. If you are resident of below country then you have to Tuesday, October 29 by 19:00 UTC after you will not able to withdraw your fund.

List of Countries that will be ban to use Bittrex,


Guys share it with your friends and family so they would withdrawal their fund if they are reside on above country. They will no longer to use Bittrex from Tuesday, October 29 by 19:00 UTC

Noted this, even it is due to regulatory uncertainty they may have also low trading volume in that particular areas of the world. Regulatory issues is very common specially that of lack understanding about the nature of cryptocurrency and perceive as a threat to their monetary system.

have already shared to my social media account ,also shared in some of my groups so people around the globe may learn about what Bittrex decide to do ,its a sudden but nothing we can do.lucky that my country is not included to those 31 countries because i may have no choice but to withdraw and transfer to other exchange

thanks for the heads Up OP, this is a great share !!!

That is not a satisfactory answer to shut down the service due to regulatory uncertainty and if that is the real case then they should shut down their service in more countries than the said 31 countries. Since it is a private company they can take decision like that and thank you for informing the community about shutting their service to the said countries. They should have given more time for the users to withdraw their money than giving around ten days as majority might not hear about their decision if they are on a vacation.

Sad to see this. Having to shutdown due to uncertainty must be quite unacceptable to most people or even to the company themselves but I guess they have their reasons. I've spread it to my social media accounts and hopefully, other users are able to see the announcement before the shutdown happens. I just hope majority are able to withdraw their funds and hope that Bittrex is able to comeback after sorting their problems out.

i wonder how many users they are going to scam this time and how much money they are going to earn this round. last time they dropped services for some countries they ended up first limiting the withdrawal for these users then completely banned their accounts and blocked their money practically robbing them overnight.
at least this time it seems like there is a small window for them to withdraw (that is if they aren't already limited!).

Unfortunately, there is just more and more of this happening here lately. I'm really not sure why the whole world has become so anti-crypto lately. I guess since they can't regulate the coins themselves, they're going after all of the services that people use to acquire the coins. Making them pay an outrageous fee to get licensed in each individual country the reside in or shut down trading there. It's really sad to see.

Regulatory uncertainty doesn't mean they're anti-crypto per se. Bittrex is trying to save their ass because it's possible that those countries start killing them when they finished the regulation. However, another case is also possible since the current state is unknown (even though most people tend to believe crypto won't get accepted over there).

No need to speculate further, you can still use other exchange and let Bittrex survive with whatever they have right now.

It saddens me to see many African countries on the list. The thought of how many poor souls will get scammed due to this action is just worrisome. Many might not get this info about this decision on time and it would cost them since many Africans still rely in this exchanges for safety especially those in the struggling countries. Most government aren't crypto friendly so some enthusiast stay under the radar my relying on reputed exchanges for safety (although it shouldn't be the best decisions).

Bittrex too will be losing many customers by this action, don't think it's a right decision especially as the affect countries are those we might consider to need their service the more considering local exchanges aren't conducive for patronize.

At the end of the day, Bittrex (and any other centralized exchange for that matter) is a private company, and they can do what they like. Sure, it sucks for users in these countries who use Bittrex, but if Bittrex don't know if they are going to be able to legally continue to operate in these countries, then of course they are going to shut down rather than face fines or criminal charges. Don't be fooled in to thinking any of these centralized entities give two hoots about their users. They only care about saving their own asses, and if some users get ripped off or scammed along the way, then it's not a problem for them.
 
Iran, Russia and Egypt, if I remember correctly. Did anything ever come of that? Or did it all just blow over as it usually does when some huge exchange does something massively shady/unethical/scammy? Honestly, why do people continue to trust these exchanges with their coins? Hopefully they won't pull this scam again and people will be able to withdrawal their coins first, which they absolutely shouldn't be storing on the exchange in the first place.

Start using DEXs and avoid all this ongoing nonsense altogether.

I wonder why so many exchanges shutdown their exchanges for many countries lately.
I think the volume of those exchanges still great, or the maintenance fee for maintaining those exchanges is so expensive ?

How Bittrex will know the country of each of every account on their platform? By some personal information submitted by every users when they asked before to undergo KYC on their users?
The other way is thru IP addresses? What if some of their users will use some VPN applications to access the Bittrex International exchange?

I dont think it shutdown there are just retricted country and you are not able to use that exchange if your country is belong to the list above.

The maintenance fee will not be a problem of that exchange there are many users of this exchange so the profit generated by that exchange will be enough to maintain it.

Bittrex international was very good, even if for no other than, their consistency is quite applaudable.  Shutting down access for some users from different countries of the world is really not a good development. Regulations is really making exchanges take drastic decisions. I wonder what' would be the fate of these users. Bittrex should reconsider their actions, if possible.

This is really sad because seeing a large exchange place from Bittrex which began to close the support of several countries which in my opinion can contribute very much, hopefully there is an exchange place that can receive support from all countries so that demand from bitcoin can increase because many will use bitcoin and other cryptocurrency as one of the most efficient transactions.

I agree, and I wish there was a clear answer to what all this 'regulatory uncertainty' really is.  Looking at that list I'm a bit surprised to not see the U.S. on it since there seems to be a problem with our country lately, eg, Poloniex dropping support.  Did they ever even offer service to people in the states?

I never used Bittrex, but I don't like to see this happen because it is an ominous sign to my eyes.  Members often question if bitcoin can ever be destroyed, and I have always said it can't, but what happens if and when exchanges no longer exist?  Don't think that will ever happen either, but one by one they seem to be going down.

When companies do not get regulatory certainty from the government, it will hamper the company's growth. As a result the company could not get the benefits expected before. The government regulation of a country on the crypto trading platform has caused some trading companies to stop their activities and start looking for countries with more friendly regulations.

Among the countries mentioned above may have considered Bittrex as a foreign company that might suppress the growth of their local companies to move forward. But in the official announcement, Bittrex only mentioned regulatory uncertainty as the root of the problem and did not mention the negotiation steps that had been taken.
But in my opinion, Bittrex will still be accepted by countries whose regulations are friendlier. Let them for a moment and start using other trading platforms. For what happened to this Bittrex will not have much effect on the price of cryptocurrency in the market.

Looking at the list of the countries, they are all non-white non-christian countries that are economically challenged. Bittrex is an idiot if they think bitcoin is helping the European or american countries the most, it is helping literally the low income and financially distressed countries like the list here, these countries are the ones that need bitcoin to begin with and we are talking about removing them from the list.

It is idiotic to not help these people out, you have to be caring about how much money you will make in revenue more than you care about helping people out and that is not what bitcoin is, the purpose of bitcoin is to help people who do not have other means to financially reach out to rest of the world, not close the door on them when they get here.

they do have a reason though which is because of the regulatory uncertainty in these countries. we have yet to find out what these countries regulatory board is doing. these countries is where BTC and crypto is pretty much needed though. i'm sure the users there can access some other exchanges other than bittrex. they still have time to withdraw until oct 29. the problem would be the users has yet not submitted kyc for they may lock the funds.

well well well, regulation become true as the time goes.
i wonder , what the next happen.

yes, i know , after i see the list of the country banned by bittrex.
and i quick recognized, and that seems weird for me.
most of in the list is the poorest country in the world by this (https://www.ranker.com/list/world-poverty-50-poorest-countries-in-the-world/info-lists) article.
then, what's in my head is why bittrex can do such actions.
they have good reputation , but i guess after this , its not anymore.

10 day period to withdraw is not enough even if they emailed every user. For sure many will not be able to withdraw with this short notice. Bittrex could have given their users  at least one month regardless of the reason to discontinue their service.

Can't help think what if Bittrex decide to launch their own DEX?  :D

Provided the users haven't completed any sort of KYC, and are careful to properly hide their true IP (there are many ways a browser will leak your real IP even if you are using a VPN), then Bittrex won't know. It will be fairly obvious, though, if accounts which have logged in from Tunisian (for example) for the last several years all of sudden switch to an American or European IP.

Honestly, I look forward to the day that these centralized exchanges no longer exist. I have never used a centralized exchange to turn fiat in to bitcoin and have never completed KYC, and I get by just fine. It's getting easier and easier as time goes on to not have to use one, with the growth of the peer-to-peer scene and DEXs such as BISQ. The entire point of bitcoin was to move away from using third parties. Trusting these unethical, shady, and often borderline scammy centralized exchange with your data, your documents, your coins, your money, seems backwards to me.

Welcome to centralized exchanges. Every single one is a business first and foremost, and they care much much more about their own profits than they do about their users.

Although we can still trade on DEX, but it seems that some traders will choose to retire, given the volume in there is very low and the transaction fee is quite large if the network is busy! Maybe this is one of the government's efforts to suppress the development of cryptocurrency? let's see what the community will do :)

Well played by Bittrex. I wonder where they'll be getting their volume from now considering most of their users (all 31 countries banned + others previously not allowed) come from these countries. With the way things are going, I won't be surprising if they declare bankruptcy or even closure of their exchange. Bittrex needs to get back to winning ways else they might take similar routes like Poloniex (Locking out US users). That would make matters worse. Let's hope it doesn't get to that point.

Bittrex users (banned) are better off trading at Binance or even Huobi. They have better alts too.

Do you have a source for that? Bittrex is headquartered in the US, and Bittrex International is headquartered in Malta. They serve the Americas, Europe and Asia, as well as the Middle East and Africa, which is where the majority of these banned countries are based. Why would you think that these Middle Eastern/African countries make up the majority of their volume, as opposed to US or European customers?

I have no love for Bittrex (or any centralized exchange), but I don't think this is going to be a major blow to them. If it was, they would have pushed harder to find a solution.

Didn't really expect that Bittrex will be shutting down their services to those countries.
31 is already a big number. But I think, their management had already done their part.
Studying the effect of this decision. We don't know what is the real score here.
But on my end, I was using Bittrex for some particular coins, at least they give us time to withdraw.
But hopefully, all users can do their withdrawals on that specified time.

Awst sad to heard the the bad news effect of the regulations, hope this happen to bittrex not happen to coinbase becaise of the exchange if I am not wrong is came from the US the both exchange very affected of the regulations, hoping someday the problem will be fix, I am also a bittrex user and thank you mate for sharing this news even my country aren't included in the list I sucured my coin to transfer from another wallet of exchange.

What regulations? at least if it's still not detrimental, bittrex shouldn't close it. Isn't this actually reducing the volume on their exchanger, I think that the regulation would only make more big exchangers will banning more countries to used.

This is not surprising at all since Bittrex, being one of the first exchanges to  implement KYC's looks like to have been following regulatory compliance along the way but I doubt "regulatory uncertainties" is the only reason why they have decided to halt their services on those mentioned countries.

I don't know if they are sugar coating this announcement but I think these countries may have  rampant money laundering issues before  and a few of these countries also have terrorists activities which could be the main reason why Bittrex have decided to shutdown its services and maybe this is also due to U.S. Government pressure. Somehow I think it's an unfortunate event to those crypto holders who acts in good faith that might be greatly affected by this incident.

Read that article,I am confused why they stopped their services though My country is not listed but they din't mention the exact reason. It's a bad move for bittrex and I know few big traders from Pakistan they used bittrex for trade . they also mentioned that withdraw fee is greater than 3 times and minimum withdrawal for btc is BTC.00150001 or higher.

Does anyone know why these countries were banned and why now? I mean that this list contained many countries that do not have a common relationship.
I can understand why some countries are listed, but many are illogical.
It's good that they warned users and didn't do it randomly.

In the case of Venezuela, the truth is sad to see that these decisions are taken by the political pressure of the US and the EU on the government of the Country, what it does is affect the "People", now not only Bittrex, it has also joined CEX.IO, info here: https://es.cointelegraph.com/news/exchange-cexio-blocks-services-for-residents-in-venezuela (https://es.cointelegraph.com/news/exchange-cexio-blocks-services-for-residents-in-venezuela).

Centralization is very negative, in the market there should be no restrictions, much less from a Country that has a disastrous economy where they see exits through Bitcoin, which represents a deflationary economy, and it is a decision that is not intelligent due to high BTC Volume negotiations that occur in the Country.

I checked the list and seem all countries, except BiH may be, are at 'high risk of terrorism, war or under sanctions'.
This means Bittrex was most probably forced to exclude them due to regulatory concerns.

IMO more and more of the big names will implement such lists in the near future.

The pathetic and eternal thing is that this 'regulatory uncertainty' comes from either the USA or the jurisdiction of their new base and has fuck all to do with the countries affected. Said countries might have the right regulation pouring out of their arse but if a bunch of bureaucrats in a far off land who probably can't even find them on a map decide they're not allowed to play then that's it.



Have you noticed Guyana being on the brink of war or blowing up the world? Botswana? Uganda? Trinidad?

I haven't.

Seems like there might be some "regulatory uncertainty" in Malta as well. Just spotted this on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bittrex/comments/dl59ht/bittrex_international_update_bittrex_global_launch/

Essentially they are shutting down "Bittrex International" which is headquartered in Malta, and launching instead "Bittrex Global" which will be headquartered in Liechtenstein.

Funny that the say they want to be the "premier global exchange" only 24 hours after withdrawing service from 31 countries... ::)

The statement that all customers "must accept" their new Terms of Service makes me suspect there is something in those Terms of Service that people aren't going to like very much.

i haven't heard anything about changes at binance, okex, or other malta-based platforms.

i'm thinking it has less to do with malta and more to do with liechtenstein. this move comes directly after liechtenstein passed comprehensive token regulation earlier this month: https://cointelegraph.com/news/liechtensteins-parliament-unanimously-approves-new-blockchain-act

according to that article:

it's not clear why they need to stop service in so many countries though.

Good thing they have announced it before they finally closed it down in different countries. I can't imagine if ever they go shut it down without prior notice to everyone making it as an exit scam like other scam exchanges does. Hope those users tend to withdraw their funds last Oct. 18. I've read here (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://beincrypto.com/bittrex-cryptocurrency-exchange-shutting-down-in-31-countries/amp/&ved=2ahUKEwiW9cLquq7lAhUMO3AKHYTgCQcQFjABegQIDBAI&usg=AOvVaw2PLKtf4gAKAFNZKxu3LcEI&ampcf=1) that their bitlicense was denied. That is the main reason why they are shutting down with 31 countries.

They will not do that. They will give announcements to their members who lived in the country on the list. Members still have at least a week to withdraw all of their coins and move to another exchange. I guess that binance will get these benefits from the members of Bittrex because they can move to binance which don't require to complete the KYC. That could be one of the reasons why Bittrex is shutting down with 31 countries, but still, we can only guess for the real reason. We hope all members from the country on that list can withdraw their funds without a problem at all.

Why not? They did it before en masse only last year, when they locked without warning the accounts of users from Egypt, Russia, and Iran. You can read the story about it here: https://coinvigilance.com/bittrex-exchange-unsafe-your-funds-are-locked-without-an-id-they-like/. They do it to individual accounts all the time, when they lock them for arbitrary or non-specific reasons, or demand more KYC documents and information, all without warning. You can see plenty of posts on here, on reddit, on twitter, of users who have had their accounts locked suddenly and had zero response from Bittrex for weeks or even months.

This is by no means unique to Bittrex. All centralized exchanges engage in this behavior. Keeping your coins on a centralized exchange is a daily gamble as to whether or not you will be allowed to access your own money. I have no idea why people still do it after all the shady stuff they've done over the years.

From overall discussion I have learn that shutting down their services would effect some user who are not most active. Because the timeframe isn't much longer. Even me honestly I had open my account 2 times during my 105 days vacation. So who know perhaps so many user will not noticed about their shutting down and Bittrex will seize. But this s not quite reasonable in my opinion. They should just ban them from trading, but withdrawal should remain open for long time. So users won't loss their funds.

I am quite surprised to knowing that there are about 31 countries that will be blocked from access, without knowing a clear
reason why this happened. But in my opinion, bittrex exchanges is quite responsible for this notification, and is welcome to
withdraw coins for users who contained in the list of 31 countries. Many speculations are circulating regarding the closure of
services to some of these countries. Hopefully the  bittrex exchanges itself will explain this problem. We are just waiting for
what the real news is like.

This is how Centralized exchange is going down gradually. Bittrex trading volume was decreasing continuously and now this regulation problem will cause it to go further down. For the regulation issue, the TON blockchain failed to stand well and this regulation rules will be eating the Centralized exchanges.  I feel bad that Bittrex is closing down in 31 countries! However, Life continues.

I think I have read somewhere too about this news, but from what I read, I think that they are only trying to short down the international part of the system and turning it to global because we still have Bittrex global that they are just launching, which if you look at the word international and global, I really don’t see any difference that much in the two words, so I really don’t know exactly what the issue could be that would have led to this action being taken by them because prior to now, there was no news of any challenge they are having, and Bittrex is a very big exchange that I don’t expect to actually have all these type of issue, but I believe that it is something that is not beyond control, but to be on a safe side, it is better that we just withdraw some of our funds and watch as things unfold.

I find it hard to believe that this is some sort of co-ordinated regulatory tightening from all 30 countries. Especially when there are still other regulated exchanges that are still operating or offering services to these aforementioned countries.

But the list excludes any major first world country, and includes mostly countries that are experiencing either economic hardship or subject to some form of global sanctions at the moment, which is very curious.

Much more likely that Bittrex is simply feeling the pressure to self-regulate and not have to make these changes in anticipation of the future.

I don't think they'd get rid of all those places unless it was someone else's condition.

Most of them are not violent or controversial so it must be some other weirdo's desire.

The other possibility is that those non controversial countries cost more in compliance than they generate in custom but the amounts must be tiny and if I were them I'd be looking to include than exclude. Growth could come at any time.

I smell something fishy here. Shutting down an exchange due to regulatory issues is fine if it's for 1 or 2 countries at a time but shutting down completely in such a huge number of countries is completely weird. Besides that, I don't know when did they make the announcement but Oct 29 is too near and Bittrex should have at least given a whole month to their customers to withdraw their funds. I am glad I stopped using Bittrex a year ago.