Bittrex Crypto Dealer Files Bankruptcy

JAKARTA - The crypto exchange from the United States, Bittrex, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, May 8 yesterday. Seattle-based crypto exchange company, USA, is one of the oldest exchangers. Bittrex was founded for the first time in 2013.

Reporting from the Cryptonews page, in the bankruptcy filing letter, Bittrex stated that they have more than 100,000 creditors with an estimated liabilities and second assets in the range of 500 million US dollars (around IDR 7.3 trillion) to 1 billion US dollars (IDR 14.7 trillion). This makes Bittrex one of the largest crypto exchanges to experience bankruptcy in the US in recent years.

The bankruptcy filing comes just weeks after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Bittrex of not complying with securities law by not registering with the financial regulatory agency.

A criminal lawsuit from the SEC claims that this crypto exchange does not register as a broker-dealer, exchange and settlement agency so that the Bittrex crypto exchange gets at least USD 1.3 billion (IDR 19.2 trillion) in revenue illegally obtained between 2017 and 2022.

Bittrex CEO Richie Lai has previously announced that they will close operations in the US in March 2023. The reason for this closure, according to him, is an ongoing US regulatory and economic environment. Even so, at that time, Bittrex ensured to its customers in the US that their funds would remain safe.

Bittrex's bankruptcy filing lists more than $500 million in assets and liabilities and more than 100,000 creditors. In fact, in 2018, Bittrex was once included in CoinMarketCap's list of 25 largest crypto exchanges, with a daily trading volume of 61 million US dollars (Rp900 billion). However, since then, the company has experienced a significant decline in trading volume.

Bittrex itself is a small, Seattle-based company in the United States. Founded in 2013, Bittrex's daily trading volume is currently only around 5 million US dollars (Rp73 billion). According to CoinGecko, Bittrex ranks 82nd of all crypto exchanges in the world. However, this bankruptcy is a warning to all crypto exchanges in the US to increasingly comply with applicable regulations to ensure customer security and the company's business continuity.