Crypto exchange Bittrex to wind down operations in the US

March 31, 2023 Coin Telegraph

The exchange shared that all customer funds are safe but advised its U.S. customers to withdraw their funds by April 30, 2023.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex has announced it will be winding down its operations in the United States due to the challenging regulatory and economic environment. The announcement was made on the platform's ninth anniversary, marking a bittersweet moment for the company.

Due to continued regulatory uncertainty, we have made the difficult decision to wind down our U.S. operations, effective April 30, 2023. All funds are safe and can be fully withdrawn immediately.

This does not affect customers of @BittrexGlobal https://t.co/MY4u7XLk9z
— Bittrex (@BittrexExchange) March 31, 2023

Co-founder and CEO Richie Lai shared that as the crypto ecosystem evolved, regulatory requirements have become increasingly "unclear" and "enforced, without appropriate discussion or input," leading to an uneven competitive landscape. This environment has made it economically unviable for Bittrex to continue its operations in the U.S.

Thank you everyone.... pic.twitter.com/kq8nTRT0Aj
— Richie Lai (@richiela) March 31, 2023

The company's founders have decided to focus on helping Bittrex Global succeed outside the U.S. Bittrex clarified that U.S. customers don't have to worry about the safety of their funds, as all of their capital is safe and available for withdrawal. The platform shared that it will permit trading until April 14, 2023, but advised customers to withdraw all funds by April 30, 2023.

Founded in 2014 by three cybersecurity engineers, Bittrex offered features like full-service API, near-instant atomic transactions, wallet infrastructure, and offline cold wallet solutions.

The winding down of Bittrex's U.S. operations is a reminder of the challenges faced by cryptocurrency businesses in navigating an uncertain regulatory environment.

On March 3, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse warned that the Securities and Exchange Commission's regulatory approach puts the U.S. at “severe risk” of missing out on being an attractive hub for the next evolution of blockchain and crypto innovation.

In a Bloomberg interview, Garlinghouse suggested that the crypto industry has “already started moving outside” of the U.S. because the country's crypto regulation is “behind” other nations like Australia, Japan, United Kingdom, Singapore and Switzerland.

Orca DEX to block US users from trading with its interface

March 16, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The company said U.S. traders would still be able to make swaps by directly interacting with Orca’s smart contracts, however.

The Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Orca will block all United States users from trading using its web interface beginning March 31, according to a March 16 notice posted to its official website.

The exchange did over $634 million worth of trading volume in February and has over $46 million total value locked in Solana smart contracts, according to DefiLlama.

On March 16, the protocol’s website added a notification that read, “Orca will be adding the United States to the regions and countries which are restricted from trading on orca.so effective March 31, 2023.”

*Notice appearing on Orca's website. Source: Orca*

The alert emphasized that the change “will not impact the ability of U.S. users to directly interact with Orca’s smart contract or SDK, nor will it impact their ability to provide liquidity through orca.so.”

Americans who directly interact with Orca smart contracts will not be affected by the change, the notice said.

Orca is one of the DEXs used by Jupiter to source liquidity for its swap aggregator service, so Jupiter’s website may be an alternative for traders wanting to interact with Orca smart contracts.

Cointelegraph attempted to contact both Orca and Jupiter but did not receive a response from either by the time of publication.

Centralized crypto exchanges that are not licensed in the U.S. have often blocked American users to avoid the ire of the country’s regulators, but most decentralized exchanges have not followed suit, with a few exceptions. Aggregator 1inch began blocking American users in September 2021, after stating in its terms of use that U.S. residents were not allowed to use its interface. Binance DEX also banned U.S. users in June 2019.

Unlike centralized exchanges, DEXs do not have a centralized “back end” or database controlled by the developer. For this reason, many users have found that they can circumvent geographical bans in most cases by using a VPN to hide their IP address or by connecting directly to the blockchain through a development tool such as Truffle or Hardhat.

Overstock-funded tZERO Crypto exchange will shut down March 6

February 3, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Once a highly touted exchange, tZERO facilitates securities offerings, some of which are blockchain tokens.

The tZERO Crypto exchange, whose majority owner is Overstock, will shut down on March 6, the company announced via Twitter on Feb. 3. The company says that it will continue to focus on its regulated securities products after the shutdown, as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulators clarify the legal status of crypto assets.

Today, tZERO Crypto informed its customers that it will be ceasing operations on March 6, following an orderly withdrawal of assets by the customers, which continue to be held by the custodian. 1/7
— tZERO (@tZERO) February 3, 2023

tZERO is a financial technology company headquartered in New York. It facilitates securities offerings for private companies that want to go public. In the crypto community, tZERO is most well known for its offering of tokenized shares or “digital securities,” which can potentially be traded on a blockchain.

Online retailer Overstock owns approximately 55% of tZERO, according to the company's Aug. 26 press release.

In 2019, tZERO released a traditional crypto exchange called “tZERO Crypto” that allowed users to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and other cryptocurrencies. But, in this recent announcement on Feb. 3, the company confirmed it would wind down this exchange on March 6.

In the announcement, tZERO implied that unregulated crypto exchanges are on their way into obsolescence, stating: “We believe that many digital assets would be treated as securities and trade in a regulated ecosystem.” The announcement explained further:

“While the regulatory environment around crypto assets is clarified by the SEC and other regulators (including in view of recent events), we will continue to focus on our unique regulated securities business, which we believe will be the venue where most digital asset securities will trade.”

The company said that the shutdown was set for March 6 to allow for an “orderly withdrawal of assets by the customers, which continue to be held by the custodian.” It did not clarify whether security tokens being traded on the tZERO ATS stock exchange will also be affected by the shutdown of tZERO Crypto. Cointelegraph reached out to tZERO ATS to clarify this point but could not get a response by the time of publication.

5 Crypto Exchanges Custody 1.6 Million Bitcoin or Close to 8% of the Capped Supply

December 13, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Volatility, hyperinflation and uncertainty: How everyday Venezuelans are using stablecoins to protect their livelihoods

December 9, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Customers of stablecoin payment app Reserve express their dependency on technology for everyday transactions.

Last month, Cointelegraph interviewed Reserve CEO Nevin Freeman and the payment decentralized application’s community manager Yens Michiels about the company’s mission to provide access to stable currencies. More recently, Cointelegraph spoke to a couple of users based out of Venezuela and Colombia who shared their positive experiences with Reserve.

Reserve is a tool to exchange fiat currency like Venezuelan bolivares for U.S. dollars via the Reserve (RSV) stablecoin. From everyday purchases to family remittances, Reserve has said that its use cases are increasingly growing in Latin America. After one year on the market in Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Argentina, there are over 100,000 weekly app visitors and more than 8,000 merchants accepting it as a means of payment.

Sasha Antunez and Alicia Stephany are two Reserve customers who offered their perspective on the app’s role in their daily lives and on the economic situation in Venezuela. Antunez is a neurologist living in Maracay, Venezuela and a self-proclaimed “Reserve Ranger” who uses Reserve both at home and at work. Stephany is a Venezuelan living in Bogota, Colombia who uses Reserve to support her family members that still live in Venezuela.

Antunez explained how she uses Reserve for daily expenses:

“I have my Reserve dollars saved in the app. Suppose I have to go to the supermarket and I have around $20. I do the exchange so that I have bolivares in my bank account and can pay for everything at the supermarket. But I also know that I can take my bolivares, turn them into Reserve dollars, and then into USDT.”

Most customers use it to save their money. If they get paid in their local currency, they do not have to worry about its devaluation if it is in U.S. dollars. And if they need to buy something in a local currency, as Antunez described, they can always convert it back or pay directly with the RSV stablecoin if the merchant accepts it. Most don’t even realize that it has to do with cryptocurrency, like Stephany.

“The Venezuelan bolivar loses value so fast that if you have bolivares, you need to change it as soon as you can to protect them,” she explained, adding the example that if she’s in Colombia and her father is in Venezuela, but “I needed to pay for his things, then instead of only exchanging what I needed at the supermarket, I was always looking for someone to buy extra dollars from me. So, I convinced the people from the supermarket and the pharmacy I use to download Reserve.”

The government introduced a re-denomination of the currency in October, the third one since 2008, in order to ease computations. The economy, however, had already been increasingly unofficially dollarized. This means that prices in stores are marked in dollars, corresponding to the black market rate rather than the official exchange rate, as more and more merchants use PayPal, Zelle or, now, Reserve. With Reserve, users can exchange currencies at rates closer to those of the central bank.

Couple this volatility with hyperinflation, and mistrust in the government and the banking system is bound to surge among citizens. When asked about the prospects of the economy getting better in Venezuela, Antunez said:

“I believe that technology will play a big part because cryptocurrencies allow financial freedom and free access for everyone. That’s how we need to address this situation, by giving people the tools to protect their money. Here, we don’t have any solutions, at least not right now. And I don’t see things getting any better. In the meantime, we’re just trying to protect the little money we earn from our jobs.”

At the time of publication, the project’s iPhone app was the No. 1 most downloaded app in the Venezuelan app store under the finance category. Binance and MetaMask, two other cryptocurrency trading apps, are among the top 10 as well.

South Korean Crypto Exchange Bithumb Bans Employees from Trading Bitcoin

July 3, 2021 Bitcoin.com

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