Bittrex exchange leaving the US

G

Good1

I've been with Bittrex for five years and recently recieved this email (see attached screenshot). They are based out of Seattle. It appears they will refund all client funds currently banked there, shut completely down over the next 30 days, and resurrect as Bittrex Global. Maybe they will become neighbors with Changing Zhao. It's three partners and I don't know how many employees.

I have some BTC there I now need to repatriate. I will report here how that goes. If they can make this transition seemless to the satisfaction of all clients, it might be worth noting.

They are (were) a long only (no shorts) exchange with fees not competitive with Binance or FTX. Will be interesting to see what their new fees will be. It appears they are closing down in a very honest, orderly way. I hope so.


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End of an era... I was with Bittrex since March of 2014. Still remember bugging Richie on Slack to list an altcoin that I owned a bag of, haha. He did list it but not because of me, because there were a bunch of us in the "community" that were doing the same thing

Those were the days...

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Following up...

First, i had to cancel 2FA somehow because my Bittrex authenticator abilities were on a phone that is currently completely incapacitated. To turn it off, i had to provide front and back of my Driver License, and a Selfie...then wait. My first attempt failed, bad selfie pic i think. Second attempt succeeded within 12 hours. So finally, i got logged on and was relieved to find my balance looks good. So i go to Actions, but while the Deposit link functions, the Withdraw link is non-functioning. I'm guessing this is because 2FA was removed just this morning and i'm guessing there is a wait period before withdrawal will function after that. I'll check again tomorrow and call customer service if still not enabled after 24 hours. Stay tuned.
 
Confirmation.

Good news. All my BTC was successfully repatriated back to my own wallet.

Here's how it went down. I waited at least 24 hours to log back in to Bittrex to find the Withdrawal link now live and functioning. So yah, there was a waiting period after 2FA was disabled. That's a feature, not a bug. It's been a while since i moved any BTC so i tested a small amount first and waited till it fully confirmed in my wallet. The minimum you could send was .0009 BTC and the fee was going to be .0003 BTC. So i sent .00091 BTC and received .00061 BTC in my wallet. So then i went back to get the full balance, being careful to copy and paste the same exact address i used before. Before sending, Bittrex sends one final confirmation notice to your email giving the details of the transaction. You click on the link given to confirm everything and make it happen. So yah, as soon as i confirmed, i went back to Bittrex and could see no more BTC balance in my holdings. Then, all i could do was hold my breath a little for the first ten minutes, until my wallet sends a popup notice to my desktop that a transaction is pending. After the next ten minutes, another popup says i have received the amount expected. Then i get a green check mark in my wallet after six confirmations (one hour total).

Bravo to Bittrex for closing down their business safely, fairly and orderly. I was with Bittrex for about five years without a problem. I would do business with them again if their fees are competitive. And honorable mention for the Electrum wallet where i've had no problems for the past six years.
 
https://www.engadget.com/sec-charge...r-violating-us-securities-laws-164021896.html


SEC charges crypto exchange Bittrex for violating US securities laws
The Commission alleges the company coordinated with crypto issuers to delete "problematic statements."
Dado Ruvic / reuters
Igor Bonifacic|@igorbonifacic|April 17, 2023 12:40 PM

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Bittrex and former CEO William Shihara with operating an unregistered securities exchange. In a complaint filed on Monday, the SEC alleges the crypto exchange, once one of the largest in the US, earned at least $1.3 billion in revenue between 2017 and 2022 while offering the services of a broker, exchange and clearing agency. It did so without registering with the Commission, in violation of federal law, the SEC alleges.

Additionally, the SEC claims Bittrex “coordinated” with crypto issuers to delete “problematic statements” Shihara believed would prompt a regulator like the SEC to investigate the exchange. In one instance, the Commission states Shihara instructed a potential issuer to erase comments that referenced “price predictions” and “expectation of profit.”

“Today’s action, yet again, makes plain that the crypto markets suffer from a lack of regulatory compliance, not a lack of regulatory clarity,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “As alleged in our complaint, Bittrex and issuers that it worked with knew the rules that applied to them but went to great lengths to evade them by directing issuer-applicants to ‘scrub’ offering materials of information indicating that certain crypto assets were securities.”

As Coindesk notes, Bittrex, citing “continued regulatory uncertainty,” announced last month it would exit the US market at the end of April. Over the weekend, the company told The Wall Street Journalit was recently notified by the SEC of potential enforcement actionby the Commission. David Maria, the company’s general counsel, said Bittrex would challenge the lawsuit unless the Commission offered “a reasonable settlement offer.” Last year, the US Treasury fined Bittrex $29 million for previously failing to comply with US money laundering and sanction laws.
 
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