Warning ! Bittrex shutting down in 31 countries. Withdraw your funds.

[The Cryptovator]

As title says, I have made a topic with details so please read if your are using Bittrex. Since duplicate post isn't allowed by forum, I am posting link of thread. Because matter is quite important and there is risk lost of funds.
Here is my topic, Bittrex International shutting down services from 31 countries. Although topic is exist on Trading discussion but I think warn newbie is quite reasonable. More importance is you should share and discusse on your local board if you are reside on ban country. So that no one will loss funds. Help others to save their money.

[dothebeats]

Most countries don’t have clear-cut regulations for cryptocurrencies plus the fact that the volume on the listed ones aren’t really that great to motivate Bittrex to keep on servicing them. Good that you cross-posted this here since a lot of newbies might not even catch the news early or haven’t checked out the blog post just yet.

[JeromeTash]

Imagine such a silly move. Besides the time frame for people to withdraw funds being so short, most of the countries on the list are just 3rd world countries. I find the reason for the halting of services in these countries very unsatisfactory.

List of Countries

Afghanistan
Egypt
Bosnia-Herzegowina
Botswana
Cambodia
Central African Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Côte d'Ivoire
Ethiopia
Eritrea
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Iraq
Laos
Lebanon
Libya
Maldives
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Somalia
Sudan
South Sudan
Trinidad and Tobago (
Tunisia
Uganda
Vanuatu
Venezuela
Yemen
Zimbabwe

These are the countries that even require crypto more than any other countries so that they liberate themselves from their evil corrupt governments.

[AB de Royse777]

I had/have some useless tokens in their from long years however it seems the country I am in are not effected. Anyway, it really bad to see the pressure they governments put in the exchanges. They really can not go against the authority.
Some of those countries really in need to crypto.

[yazher]

I don't see my country on the list, should I withdraw my funds there, or should I wait for further announcement? Please enlighten us with some kind of information If you know something about it. Anyway thanks for posting it here again, many users don't visit that part of the forum.

[OmegaStarScream]

I don't see my country on the list, should I withdraw my funds there, or should I wait for further announcement? Please enlighten us with some kind of information If you know something about it. Anyway thanks for posting it here again, many users don't visit that part of the forum.

If your country is not listed, you don't have to withdraw your funds.

Most countries don’t have clear-cut regulations for cryptocurrencies plus the fact that the volume on the listed ones aren’t really that great to motivate Bittrex to keep on servicing them. Good that you cross-posted this here since a lot of newbies might not even catch the news early or haven’t checked out the blog post just yet.

These countries don't follow international law and are sanctioned by the UN. The ban has nothing to do with them not being crypto-friendly. You have other African countries like Morocco which banned BTC for over a year now, and yet, the only service who stopped serving them was BitPay.

[yazher]

If your country is not listed, you don't have to withdraw your funds.

I see I'm worried for nothing then. I thought I'm gonna lose my funds If I don't withdraw them. Thanks for the enlightenment.

[Clark05]

So many countries are down or not accessing the bittrex and for sure once they access the bittrex exchange for sure they will withdraw they money they have in that site but now the chance only for the money to withdraw is the country who can access the bittrex or not on the list. Hope for them to be okay and withdraw all what they have there. Im not user of bittrex now so I don't what's happening there.

[countryfree]

I'm surprised Ethiopia is in the list. This country is trying hard to get better. And its leader just received a Nobel prize!

The other countries are known to be difficult to bank with.

[Artemis3]

I am affected, i received this dreadful email:

We regret to notify you that Bittrex International will be ceasing operations for your country of residence. All trading and account access will be halted on Tuesday, October 29 at 19:00 UTC/21:00 CEST. Below you'll find some helpful information about this process.

Withdraw Coins/Tokens

Please follow these steps in order to withdraw your coins and tokens from Bittrex International.  You must withdraw your coins/tokens by no later than Tuesday, October 29 by 19:00 UTC/21:00 CEST.  

At this time, you’ll want to withdraw your tokens by logging into https://international.bittrex.com and clicking Wallets. Next, you will need to search for the wallet and click the withdrawal button to open the withdraw dialog. Then, you will be able to withdraw your balance. Please note if your balance is below the minimum withdrawal amount for the wallet, you will not be able to withdraw it. The minimum withdrawal for all coins must be greater than 3 times the fee. For example, your balance in BTC must be .00150001 or greater as the fee is .0005.

Details: https://bittrex.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000198452-How-can-I-withdraw-my-coins-  https://bittrex.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000198452-How-can-I-withdraw-my-coins-

Customer Support

If you need additional assistance, please reach out to https://support.bittrex.com/. https://bittrex.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

After logging into support (note: different login/account than Bittrex International), select the “submit a request” button in the top right corner or use live chat to connect with an agent.

We apologize for this inconvenience, and thank you for your support.

Regards,

Bittrex International

©2019 Bittrex Malta, Ltd. All rights reserved.

85, St John Street

Valletta VLT 1165, Malta

Now here is the question, Why?

What gives an exchange, based in Malta, the right to discriminate millions of people based on country of origin. Many maybe not even live in those countries anymore, but their supplied IDs (ie. Passport) binds them back. This is yet more reason why KYC/AMC is so evil, and how it lets companies discriminate on arbitrary whims.

On what grounds do the people of these countries deserve such discrimination?

This is outrageous, and i suggest everyone protest and boycott them. Where does this end? If you have any money trapped in Bittrex, take it out before your turn comes. I wonder how much will they steal from those who couldn't get the message in time, because they are in vacation or whatever. Its until 29th, less than 10 days...

[LeGaulois]

Now here is the question, Why?

What gives an exchange, based in Malta, the right to discriminate millions of people based on country of origin.

Surely the result of the ongoing changes with Bittrex. I didn't see anyone talking about it last week, but Bittrex will soon close and re-open with a new name and a new location.
I believe that these changes are an anticipation of the laws Bittrex is supposed to abide in Liechtenstein, as well since it has been approved as a Money transmitter too

(The launch of Bittrex Global is expected to coincide with the closure of Bittrex International (Malta) operations in late October)

Be happy they let you know before. We have already seen exchanges making such changes without warning before... There are plenty of other places, there is no shortage of competition

[Lucius]

Artemis3, Bittrex does not make such a move just like that, but because it has to comply with laws and regulations in USA&EU. They know that reducing the number of users means less revenue, but they have no choice, or they will do what they are just doing, or they will be stopped from doing business.

I will just quote part of their TOS :

Restricted Locations
You may not use the Services if you are located in, or a citizen or resident of the United States. You may not use the Services if you are located in, or a citizen or resident of any state, country, territory or other jurisdiction that is embargoed by the United States, or if you are on any trade or economic sanctions lists, such as the United Nations Security Council Sanctions List, or if you are restricted or prohibited from engaging in any type of trading by the European Union, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department, Office of Foreign Asset Control or any other administrative law enforcement agencies. You may not use the Services if you are located in, or a citizen or resident of any state, country, territory or other jurisdiction where your use of the Services would be illegal or otherwise violate any applicable law. You represent and warrant that you are not a citizen or resident of any such jurisdiction and that you will not use any Services while located in any such jurisdiction, and that you are not on any trade or economic sanctions list. You also may not use the Services if you are located in, or a citizen or resident of, any other jurisdiction where Bittrex has determined, at its discretion, to prohibit use of the Services. Bittrex may implement controls to restrict access to the Services from any jurisdiction prohibited pursuant to this Section 2.2. You will comply with this Section 2.2, even if Bittrex’s methods to prevent use of the Services are not effective or can be bypassed.

I'm surprised Ethiopia is in the list. This country is trying hard to get better. And its leader just received a Nobel prize!

Maybe the Nobel Prize is the reason, Trump is jealous because he didn't get it, so he put Ethiopia on the list

[1Referee]

What gives an exchange, based in Malta, the right to discriminate millions of people based on country of origin. Many maybe not even live in those countries anymore, but their supplied IDs (ie. Passport) binds them back. This is yet more reason why KYC/AMC is so evil, and how it lets companies discriminate on arbitrary whims.

On what grounds do the people of these countries deserve such discrimination?

This is outrageous, and i suggest everyone protest and boycott them. Where does this end? If you have any money trapped in Bittrex, take it out before your turn comes. I wonder how much will they steal from those who couldn't get the message in time, because they are in vacation or whatever. Its until 29th, less than 10 days...

It might sound harsh, but they don't owe anyone an explanation for any of their actions. Bittrex has turned full shite long ago, so them clearly articulating what and when they are introducing these changes is quite nice of them. It just goes to show how retarded this space has become with how people signed up to their exchange regardless of the thousands of complaints and whatnot.

This crap exchange closed my account that I registered in 2013 after PROMISING to people that legacy accounts will not be as severely affected. Outcome is that they blocked my account.

[erikalui]

Shocking that India is not in the list when Pakistan is mentioned and the country is strongly against cryptos. Why not shut down completely when the trading volume also will reduce that would cause huge losses to the exchange? Nowadays almost all exchanges are shutting down so won't be surprised if Bittrex shut down completely along with Binance, Kucoin and Hitbtc.

[LTU_btc]

Bittrex is moving to Liechtenstein, so these news are probably related with it. They had to do it to follow regulations of country. Most of these countries is under sanctions and it's main reason of ban. And I think that these countries isn't very significant markets for Bittrex, so these bans won't hurt them much.
@Artemis3, I wouldn't call this as discrimination. It's just business without any emotions.