Bittrex to shut its U.S operations

[yhiaali3]

Yes, unfortunately we heard the bad news, Bittrex has been one of the oldest and best centralized exchanges for many years, it seems that the attack by the government of the United States of America will not leave anyone alone.

The CEO tweeted that due to regulatory uncertainty the exchange would cease operations in the US, but would not affect Bittrex Global.

Despite the unfortunate news, I see the news on a positive side, which is that in the end all these centralized exchanges and other services will migrate from the United States and its strict regulatory laws to countries that are more open to crypto, and this will be in the interest of crypto in the end.

[stompix]

I'm not talking about exchanges bringing innovation, but rather crypto startups and companies alike. Fierce regulations will only make them flee the country, taking away innovation with them.

And what fierce regulations would make normal start-ups flee the country?
The only ones that would be affected by these are those who come with some vaporware and buzzwords, try to get funding with some shitty token and then to end up bankrupt, no regulation will prevent somebody from coming up with a real product and a piece of software and follow the same path as hundreds and thousands of tech companies have done.

I am of course heavily biased since I'm a bitcoin maximalist to the core but if it were from my point of view I would ban completely any coin offering or limit it to the value of the assets the company has at the moment of the launch. You have $1000 in assets that's how much you can get in from selling shitcoin, no stuff liKe getting 4 billion in funding and ending with...EOS?
Would you cry over them not being allowed to operate in your country? I wouldn't!

Either way, things are not looking good for US as one of the leading countries in crypto/Blockchain tech innovation.

Ok, what will the US miss in terms of innovation?
Care to share some examples of companies and innovative products that the US or the EU might miss because of regulations?

[YOSHIE]

I'm not sure how many U.S users they have, but by looking at the current trading volume[2] I wouldn't be surprised to see them shut down the entire platform before the end of the year.

I see that lately many crypto exchanges operating in Singapore do not comply with and are subject to the basic rule guidelines that have been set by the Singapore government as a regulator regarding financial protection for the public, especially in Singapore, but for now even though the Bittrex company wants to close operations in the US, in Singapore it has not had a negative impact, but concerns from Bittrex users themselves are in Singapore.

One hand, if I see on Twitter Bittrex stopped operations in the US with reasons.

Due to continued regulatory uncertainty, we have taken the difficult decision to cease our operations in the US effective April 30, 2023. All funds are safe and fully withdrawn immediately,” Bittrex wrote via its Twitter account, quoted from Bitcoin.

Whereas in singapore the rules for crypto exchanges operating there are clear, ok, US is not clear, if Bittrex does the same in singapore it is a disaster for crypto users in singapore, I hope what happened to US society doesn't happen to Singapore but we don't know what will happen in future please stay safe.

[OmegaStarScream]

This just came out: https://decrypt.co/136947/bittrex-faces-potential-enforcement-action-sec-report

I'm not very familiar with the laws and regulations in the U.S but how can this make sense if they already announced shutting down their operations?

[Rikafip]

I'm not very familiar with the laws and regulations in the U.S but how can this make sense if they already announced shutting down their operations?

I think the problem is that between 2014 and up until 2022 they made shit load of money providing services that they haven't been registered for, so the fact that they plan to close it now won't help much.  Its confirmed that SEC charged them and their former CEO for "operating an unregistered exchange, broker, and clearing agency".

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged crypto asset trading platform Bittrex, Inc. and its co-founder and former CEO William Shihara for operating an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. The SEC also charged Bittrex, Inc.’s foreign affiliate, Bittrex Global GmbH, for failing to register as a national securities exchange in connection with its operation of a single shared order book along with Bittrex.

From 2017 through 2022, Bittrex earned at least $1.3 billion in revenues from, among other things, transaction fees from investors, including U.S. investors, while servicing them as a broker, exchange, and clearing agency without registering any of these activities with the Commission.

[stompix]

This just came out: https://decrypt.co/136947/bittrex-faces-potential-enforcement-action-sec-report
I'm not very familiar with the laws and regulations in the U.S but how can this make sense if they already announced shutting down their operations?

Juts as Rikafip said, it's about past actions.
And it's not just an US thing it's fairly common even for the EU and at least a few South Asian nations I'm familiar with, I've known case when the government will take to court for past action even companies that are no longer present in their jurisdiction or companies that have been bought, etc etc.
That's one of the reasons why international arbitration courts exist, you shutting down your US or Mongolian branch doesn't erase your past actions there.

The even "funnier" thing happens when you're getting an inquiry in your main branch country about practices by your subsidiaries in a foreign country despite following the rules there but breaching the standards here, one of the biggest pain in the ass ever, and unfortunately not so uncommon as one mgiht think.

[NotATether]

But there are seemingly older exchanges based in the US such as Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini etc that seem stable unlike this other ones that keep playing hide and seek with the regulators. Bittrex tried that hide and seek game and failed. I think they even had two branches if i recall well. I think I remember some of us being forced to use Bittrex Global for non US users.

Coinbase, apparently, has already regretted 100 times that all this time they have been actively trying to develop under American jurisdiction, they themselves are no longer happy about this. It is quite possible that if they had a different jurisdiction, they would have had much more influence in the crypto exchange market and would have bitten off a much larger piece of the exchange market pie. In 2023, they finally realized that this is hindering the development of their business and are thinking about changing jurisdiction to a friendlier one: Bloomberg learns of Coinbase’s plans to create an exchange outside of US jurisdiction

They can't do that because they are a publicly traded company so their stock would get hammered if they try to move their headquarters overseas.

Besides, doing that will throw most of their US customers under the bus.

Ok, what will the US miss in terms of innovation?
Care to share some examples of companies and innovative products that the US or the EU might miss because of regulations?

Bored apes, Pepes shaped like sports cars, teenage mutant mutant apes, cyberpunks in 256-bit colors (what is this, Windows 95?), crypto tigers (the product of cryptokitties growing up), and let's not forget Bitcoinnect 9000.0! /s

[bbc.reporter]

I am of course heavily biased since I'm a bitcoin maximalist to the core but if it were from my point of view I would ban completely any coin offering or limit it to the value of the assets the company has at the moment of the launch. You have $1000 in assets that's how much you can get in from selling shitcoin, no stuff liKe getting 4 billion in funding and ending with...EOS?
Would you cry over them not being allowed to operate in your country? I wouldn't!

This is where the problem begins and you admit this yourself. Maximalists argue from a biased view of the cryptospace and consider everything in it has no right to try new things if it is not done in bitcoin. This is not reasonable and it does not allow space for innovation. No one knows what the cryptospace will be, similar to what no one knew what the internet might be when it was invented.

In any case, a news update on the lawsuit against Bittrex. The SEC declares that Algorand, Dash, OMG Network and more in what was said to be a nonexhaustive list. This is head shaking because Bittrex risked growth of the exchange by following the rules when the SEC began issuing warnings on tokens issued as illegal securities. This is why I wish CZ will win and show decentralization works.



SEC Labels Algorand and Five Other Tokens as Securities in Bittrex Lawsuit

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) categorized six cryptocurrencies as securities in its lawsuit against crypto exchange Bittrex on Monday, highlighting them as potentially pivotal assets in an enforcement action against the Seattle-based firm.

The crux of the SEC’s complaint against Bittrex is that the platform failed to register with the watchdog as an exchange, broker-dealer, or clearing agency—a requirement for offering securities to customers in a manner regulated by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Read in full https://decrypt.co/136990/sec-bittrex-lawsuit-algorand-five-tokens-securities

[crwth]

I remember reading about it in some articles that Bittrex is on the verge of filing a case with the SEC. Thanks to the people who posted it here. I remember them as being one of the first exchanges, and I also have been with them for a time, but I don't get to trade with them anymore due to complications and trading fees.

I'm curious as to what are the things behind the exchange.

[stompix]

~

This is where the problem begins and you admit this yourself. Maximalists argue from a biased view of the cryptospace and consider everything in it has no right to try new things if it is not done in bitcoin. This is not reasonable and it does not allow space for innovation. No one knows what the cryptospace will be, similar to what no one knew what the internet might be when it was invented.

I am not against innovation, let's make this clear!
I'm not against projects like Wasabi or Bisq or Open bazaar or whatever, where I stop sympathizing with so-called "devs" is when they ask for money before having anything other than a plagiarized whitepaper. So my question stills stand, what kind of innovation other than ICO sales are the new regulation hindering? Because you see, bitcoin had no ICO, LN had no ICO, segwit had no ICO, and neither did a ton of things, if we go into the altcoin universe there is nothing without upfront money from investors, sometimes more money than Google would need

So until somebody shows me a real project that was a net benefit to the community and didn't require billion in purchased shitcoins that was forced to leave becuase of this I won't budge from my position, which is that they can all go to h*&^!

This is why I wish CZ will win and show decentralization works.

CZ and decentralization, this was actually funny!

[Abiky]

Yes, unfortunately we heard the bad news, Bittrex has been one of the oldest and best centralized exchanges for many years, it seems that the attack by the government of the United States of America will not leave anyone alone.

The CEO tweeted that due to regulatory uncertainty the exchange would cease operations in the US, but would not affect Bittrex Global.

Despite the unfortunate news, I see the news on a positive side, which is that in the end all these centralized exchanges and other services will migrate from the United States and its strict regulatory laws to countries that are more open to crypto, and this will be in the interest of crypto in the end.

The ones that will be most affected are not exchanges, but rather, US customers themselves. If all CEXs move away from the country, there will be no way to trade cryptocurrencies using US Dollars, unless you do it in-person (which is risky, and difficult to find someone you can trust for this). DEXs won't be an option, because they don't provide Fiat on/off ramps. Those that do are not truly decentralized.

I really hope the US comes to its senses, in order to avoid behind left behind in the dust. Other countries are already way ahead of the game with their flexible crypto regulations. With Bittrex out of the scene, I wonder if Binance.US will be the next one to leave the country?

[OmegaStarScream]

I really hope the US comes to its senses, in order to avoid behind left behind in the dust. Other countries are already way ahead of the game with their flexible crypto regulations. With Bittrex out of the scene, I wonder if Binance.US will be the next one to leave the country?

They have been struggling to find a new banking partner for some time now, and they also said they'll be limiting their investments in the U.S so I wouldn't be surprised if they do leave.

Coinbase's CEO also made a statement today, saying that relocating to somewhere else[1][2] is not off the table.

[1] https://blockworks.co/news/could-coinbase-leave-us
[2] https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/04/18/coinbase-could-move-away-from-us-if-no-regulatory-clarity-ceo-brian-armstrong/

[examplens]

I really hope the US comes to its senses, in order to avoid behind left behind in the dust. Other countries are already way ahead of the game with their flexible crypto regulations. With Bittrex out of the scene, I wonder if Binance.US will be the next one to leave the country?

To me personally, it all looks like preparation and cleaning space for accepting one or two government-friendly players.
However, if it is really true that Bittrex has been operating for years without the necessary registrations and licenses, they have to go. It is interesting that Bittrex has always insisted on very strict regulations, if I am not mistaken they were among the first to introduce mandatory KYC, all under the pretext of complying with regulations.

[bbc.reporter]

~

This is where the problem begins and you admit this yourself. Maximalists argue from a biased view of the cryptospace and consider everything in it has no right to try new things if it is not done in bitcoin. This is not reasonable and it does not allow space for innovation. No one knows what the cryptospace will be, similar to what no one knew what the internet might be when it was invented.

I am not against innovation, let's make this clear!
I'm not against projects like Wasabi or Bisq or Open bazaar or whatever, where I stop sympathizing with so-called "devs" is when they ask for money before having anything other than a plagiarized whitepaper. So my question stills stand, what kind of innovation other than ICO sales are the new regulation hindering? Because you see, bitcoin had no ICO, LN had no ICO, segwit had no ICO, and neither did a ton of things, if we go into the altcoin universe there is nothing without upfront money from investors, sometimes more money than Google would need

So until somebody shows me a real project that was a net benefit to the community and didn't require billion in purchased shitcoins that was forced to leave becuase of this I won't budge from my position, which is that they can all go to h*&^!

This is why I wish CZ will win and show decentralization works.

CZ and decentralization, this was actually funny!

Everything in bitcoin with no space for anything else because everthing that is not bitcoin is a scam, correct?

Also, yes CZ and the decentralization of the different cryptocoins, tokens, and the protocols in the cryptospace. This is not funny. I reckon this is an annoyance for the regulators hehehe. CZ holds billions in crypto, how can the government take it from him? How can the government stop him from moving them from address to address or convert them to Monero where it cannot be detected?

[Abiky]

They have been struggling to find a new banking partner for some time now, and they also said they'll be limiting their investments in the U.S so I wouldn't be surprised if they do leave.

Coinbase's CEO also made a statement today, saying that relocating to somewhere else[1][2] is not off the table.

[1] https://blockworks.co/news/could-coinbase-leave-us
[2] https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/04/18/coinbase-could-move-away-from-us-if-no-regulatory-clarity-ceo-brian-armstrong/

Coinbase is even bigger than Bittrex. If it leaves, it will be a huge blow to the US in the long run. The country needs pro-crypto politicians, in order to devise a proper regulatory framework for the industry. Last time I've read the news, a Republican congressman proposed a bill to oust SEC chairman Gary Gensler and replace him with a new director. Whenever that will get approved by Congress is yet to be seen.

It would be a hugeq relief for both crypto exchanges and US customers if industry regulations eased off a bit without Gary Gensler. Maybe this will bring back exchanges that left the country because of strict regulations? Time is running out for the US, so it'd better act fast before other countries "eat its candies". Who knows what the future holds for crypto/Blockchain tech in the region? Just my thoughts

[bbc.reporter]

@Abiky. What every country needs is clear regulatory guidance on the cryptospace. This is the problem with the US SEC and Gary Gensler. They crack down on the cryptospace, however, they do not have clear rules and regulations to back their cases. Everything is based on traditional finance. It appears that new technology needs new types of regulations.

A good example of this is Ripple. The lawsuit is not going anywhere because they cannot charge Ripple Labs with anything.

[Abiky]

@Abiky. What every country needs is clear regulatory guidance on the cryptospace. This is the problem with the US SEC and Gary Gensler. They crack down on the cryptospace, however, they do not have clear rules and regulations to back their cases. Everything is based on traditional finance. I appears that new technology needs new types of regulations.

A good example of this is Ripple. The lawsuit is not going anywhere because they cannot charge Ripple Labs with anything.

Lawmakers really need to educate themselves about crypto/Blockchain tech before coming forward with regulations. As you've said before, existing laws/regulations were made at a time when crypto didn't even exist. I hope that US Congress gets its act together by devising a clear regulatory framework for the entire industry. Only then, crypto/Blockchain tech will be able to grow within the US without obstacles and/or limitations.

Crypto advocates need to "fight" in every way possible, to help prevent the industry from leaving the country (US). If Ripple, Coinbase, and other big names in the crypto industry win lawsuits, then we'd be off to a good start. Let's hope all goes well in the long run. Just my opinion

[bbc.reporter]

@Abiky. Also, if CZ and Binance evade much of these regulations and to continue what they have been doing, it would also imply that the laws the regulators use have become limited in managing the cryptospace.

I shake my head because it was Bittrex that wanted to be regulatory compliant and they delisted much of the ICOs in the exchange on 2017. This caused Binance to become the exchange for maybe more than 80% of the market for ICO coins and tokens. However, what did it bring Bittrex for following the rules? Presently other exchanges are learning from CZ hehehe.

[Renampun]

even though I have an account at bittrex but I have never traded there again, it's been quite a while

This just came out: https://decrypt.co/136947/bittrex-faces-potential-enforcement-action-sec-report

I'm not very familiar with the laws and regulations in the U.S but how can this make sense if they already announced shutting down their operations?

I am also like that, I don't really understand the conditions of the strict rules that exist in the US but if I become the owner of bittrex then I will do the same thing (close bittrex service in the US) the regulations made by the SEC are very strict even the CEO of Bittrex claims that each States has different regulations so that it makes operational costs even more expensive.

California: Crypto exchange Bittrex, founded in 2014 by three Amazon alumni, is shutting down its US operations, citing a regulatory environment that has made it “no longer feasible” to operate in the country. In a tweet, Bittrex co-founder and US CEO Richie Lai said it’s “not economically viable for us to continue to operate in the current US regulatory and economic environment.” All customer funds are available to withdraw until the end of April, and its global business outside the US will continue to operate.

SOURCE--

[Abiky]

@Abiky. Also, if CZ and Binance evade much of these regulations and to continue what they have been doing, it would also imply that the laws the regulators use have become limited in managing the cryptospace.

I shake my head because it was Bittrex that wanted to be regulatory compliant and they delisted much of the ICOs in the exchange on 2017. This caused Binance to become the exchange for maybe more than 80% of the market for ICO coins and tokens. However, what did it bring Bittrex for following the rules? Presently other exchanges are learning from CZ hehehe.

Regulations are there to protect investors against malpractices from crypto exchange companies. But too much regulations, will cause a mass exodus by said companies to other countries that are much more flexible. The US is trying to do the right thing by eliminating as much illegal activity as possible on the crypto industry. It's just that it's doing everything the wrong way. Congress needs to devise a proper regulatory framework to bring clarity to the crypto industry in the region. The first step would be to remove SEC chairman Gary Gensler from office. That would provide a sign of relief among crypto exchanges and investors alike.

I was surprised to have read about Bittrex leaving the US when it was always striving to comply with regulations. Maybe there's something else behind that made Bittrex take such a decision? Now Coinbase threatened to leave the US, so things will get interesting in the following months. Let's hope there's "light at the end of the tunnel" for the crypto industry to thrive within the US. Just my opinion