Bitfinex has recently announced that they will be terminating all services to US customers, including trading, depositing, and withdrawing functionalities. The termination is scheduled for the 9th of November 2017. US Bitfinex users have been advised to withdraw all their funds well before this deadline.
This announcement is not a surprised as the trading platform announced in August that they intend to move away from US users. Experts and users have speculated that this bold move has come as a result of the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) announcement that initial coin offerings (ICOs) would be considered as securities, and therefore, would be subject to current existing financial regulations. Within a week of the SEC’s announcement, Bitfinex blocked all US users from trading ERC20 compliant tokens that were issued via an ICO.
Bitfinex stated in their announcement that they have considered pulling away from the US retail marketplace for quite some time. This is surprising considering that the USD-BTC is one of the largest trading markets in the world. However, according to Bitfinex’s statement, a surprisingly small percentage of the platform’s revenue comes from US users. Bitfinex also stated that despite the small US revenue percentage, the resources that go into maintaining their US services, are remarkably high. These costs and resources include the maintenance of the needs of US individual traders, legal support, and regulatory compliance.
Bitfinex stated that as of the 27th of October, all US customers will be allowed to sell their Recovery Right Tokens (RRTs) via the exchange. The Bitfinex RRTs were issued to a group of Bitfinex token holders, who have since converted their BFX tokens into iFinex shares.
BFX tokens were issued to Bitfinex users after a particularly damaging hack that took place during August 2016. The hack caused a great fallout amongst Bitfinex users. To facilitate the fallout and find a solution, Bitfinex converted 36% of all customers’ holdings into BFX tokens. The tokens, in turn, were repaid through irregular and announced installments, as decided upon by the platform. According to Bitfinex, all US users who still have RRTs may be sold through Bitfinex on an OTC basis via a special arrangement with the platform.
This announcement follows in the wake of the increased scrutiny that the company has suffered due to the rising numbers of ‘Tether’ or ‘USDT’ tokens that have been issued. Since the Wells Fargo suspension of USD wire transfer services on behalf of Taiwanese banks, which provide services to Bitfinex, many have speculated that the suspension implied Bitfinex has been resorting to using Tether to bypass liquidity issues. USDT tokens have already experienced an increase of 500% since the start of Bitfinex’s banking troubles.
This announcement is not a surprised as the trading platform announced in August that they intend to move away from US users. Experts and users have speculated that this bold move has come as a result of the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) announcement that initial coin offerings (ICOs) would be considered as securities, and therefore, would be subject to current existing financial regulations. Within a week of the SEC’s announcement, Bitfinex blocked all US users from trading ERC20 compliant tokens that were issued via an ICO.
Bitfinex stated in their announcement that they have considered pulling away from the US retail marketplace for quite some time. This is surprising considering that the USD-BTC is one of the largest trading markets in the world. However, according to Bitfinex’s statement, a surprisingly small percentage of the platform’s revenue comes from US users. Bitfinex also stated that despite the small US revenue percentage, the resources that go into maintaining their US services, are remarkably high. These costs and resources include the maintenance of the needs of US individual traders, legal support, and regulatory compliance.
Bitfinex stated that as of the 27th of October, all US customers will be allowed to sell their Recovery Right Tokens (RRTs) via the exchange. The Bitfinex RRTs were issued to a group of Bitfinex token holders, who have since converted their BFX tokens into iFinex shares.
BFX tokens were issued to Bitfinex users after a particularly damaging hack that took place during August 2016. The hack caused a great fallout amongst Bitfinex users. To facilitate the fallout and find a solution, Bitfinex converted 36% of all customers’ holdings into BFX tokens. The tokens, in turn, were repaid through irregular and announced installments, as decided upon by the platform. According to Bitfinex, all US users who still have RRTs may be sold through Bitfinex on an OTC basis via a special arrangement with the platform.
This announcement follows in the wake of the increased scrutiny that the company has suffered due to the rising numbers of ‘Tether’ or ‘USDT’ tokens that have been issued. Since the Wells Fargo suspension of USD wire transfer services on behalf of Taiwanese banks, which provide services to Bitfinex, many have speculated that the suspension implied Bitfinex has been resorting to using Tether to bypass liquidity issues. USDT tokens have already experienced an increase of 500% since the start of Bitfinex’s banking troubles.