Bittrex, Inc. released the following statement today regarding Bittrex U.S.’ decision to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy:
“Having previously announced that Bittrex, Inc. would be ceasing all operations in the U.S. effective April 30th, we have now made the decision to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court in Delaware.”
As clarified in the update, this announcement “does not impact Bittrex Global, which will continue operations as normal for its customers outside the U.S.”
For those customers who “did not withdraw their funds from the platform prior to the end of April, your funds remain safe and secure, and [Bittrex’s] main priority is to ensure that their customers are made whole.”
While the Bankruptcy Court will ultimately decide the method by which those funds can be claimed by and distributed to their customers, Bittrex says they “intend to ask the court to activate those accounts as soon as possible so that customers meeting the necessary regulatory requirements will be able to withdraw them.”
You may visit bittrex.com during this process, as they will reportedly “provide additional information as they receive it, and affected customers will also receive information directly from the Bankruptcy Court.”
They have also “retained Omni Agent Solutions to provide email and website updates to customers.”
You can find additional information here.
As covered last month, Bittrex, a crypto exchange that announced it was ceasing operations at the end of March, was hit with an enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC has charged Bittrex and its former CEO William Shihara for operating an unregistered national securities exchange, broker-dealer, and clearing agency.
The SEC has recently stepped up its pace of enforcement actions against crypto platforms as well as issuers of digital assets that are deemed to be securities.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler said the enforcement action makes plain that the crypto markets have a “lack of regulatory compliance, not a lack of regulatory clarity.”
“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. Further, Bittrex, as alleged, failed to register and comply with U.S. securities laws as an exchange, broker-dealer, and clearing agency. Cosmetic alterations did nothing to change the underlying economic realities of the offerings and Bittrex’s conduct. Today we’re holding Bittrex accountable for its non-compliance.”