Bittrex International, a U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange platform has announced that it is restricting access to its platform in 31 countries across Africa, South America, Europe and Asia due to regulatory uncertainty.
The affected countries are:
Afghanistan
Egypt
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Botswana
Cambodia
Central African Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
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
Zimbabwe
Users in affected countries have until Tuesday, 29 October to withdraw their tokens from the platform, noting that users will be unable to withdraw their tokens unless their account balance is at least three times higher than the withdrawal fee.
This latest announcement follows the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) rejection of Bittrex's BitLicence application in April 2019. In a statement, NYDFS executive deputy superintendent for banking Shirin Emami claimed that Bittrex's application was rejected because of persistent deficiencies in Bittrex's transaction monitoring, customer ID and token listing protocols.
Given that a lack of systematic process for making token-listing decisions was a key factor of the NYDFS decision to refuse Bittrex's BitLicence application, Bittrex is likely to be facing significant scrutiny from international regulators as to the regulatory treatment of the tokens listed on its platform.
Bittrex put a more positive spin on things in an email to customers presenting a change to Bittrex Global, located in Lichenstein as the new HQ of the company.