Crypto exchange Bittrex files for bankruptcy protection in the US
Cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex’s US entity has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a federal court in Delaware.
Bittrex files for bankruptcy protection in the US
The move comes just weeks after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged the company and its co-founder and former CEO William Shihara for allegedly “operating an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency” on 17 April.
Following the SEC’s complaint, Bittrex had announced that it would be shutting down operations in the US effective 30 April, saying it was “not viable” to continue operations under the current US regulatory and economic environment.
The bankruptcy filing includes its Seattle-based entity Bittrex Inc and two Bittrex entities based in Malta, as well as an affiliated entity, Desolation Holdings LLC.
The firm says the announcement does not impact Liechtenstein-based Bittrex Global, which will continue operations “as normal” for its customers outside the US.
In the bankruptcy filing, Bittrex Inc estimates to have over 100,000 creditors, between $500 million to $1 billion in assets, and between $500 million to $1 billion in liabilities.
In a statement, the company says: “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 our main priority is to ensure that our customers are made whole.
“While the Bankruptcy Court will ultimately decide the method by which those funds can be claimed by and distributed to our customers, we 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.”
