Crypto Exchange Bittrex has decided to terminate its services in 31 countries, citing regulatory uncertainties behind the harsh decision.
Announced on Friday, the countries are Afghanistan, Egypt, Bosnia-Herzegowina, Botswana, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of 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, and Zimbabwe.
The crypto exchange detailed that it has informed traders based on each of these countries about the termination of trading services via email.
Bittrex has banned all Venezuelan accounts, they are not the first to do so and then others will come. I ask for solidarity and for others to withdraw their funds from this Exchange #Bittrex. I move my funds to a cold wallet. Hoping for a real decentralized ?. $btc $ltc $dgb pic.twitter.com/J4KQtx6zjF
— DigiDave (@ADgc50) October 19, 2019
Pull out funds before the deadline
The services will be shut down on October 29 at 7 pm (UTC), giving the customers no additional window to withdraw their holdings from the exchange.
“You must withdraw your coins/tokens by no later than Tuesday, October 29 by 19:00 UTC/21:00 CEST,” the exchange noted.
However, customers can only withdraw their holdings if the available balance is three times the withdrawal fee charged by the platform.
“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,” Bittrex added.
This decision to cut short the markets came months after Bitrex decided to delist 32 tokens for traders based in the United States, Finance Magnates reported.
Meanwhile, to penetrate the European market, the exchange is gearing up to open a digital asset exchange based in Liechtenstein. However, this will see the closing of its Malta-based subsidiary Bittrex International.