Bitcoin at $3,400 and Ethereum at $100, how the crypto winter feels like a weight. In 2019 it isnt just crypto thats a bad word, its even blockchain as well.
Its a rag tag banking mafia proclaiming the death of crypto exchanges, and Twitter is rife with tweets signalling the beginning of the end:
“We need more.
More exchanges gone. More projects shuttering. More SEC enforcements. More developer ragequits. More ICO Treasury selling. More layoffs. More fund liquidations. More scammers exposed. More failed cap raises. More crypto is dead.”
The crypto priests vs. the banking evangelists police. Lack of liquidity huh? Cryptocurrency exchangeLiqui, ranked 181st by 24 hour volume on Coinmarketcap, is shutting down. This makes it the first cryptocurrency exchange to go down in 2019
Ifaltcoins shimmer out of existenceevery few days, that some Crypto Exchanges would go under in the crypto winter should not surprise is, its all business. The use case of blockchain, the scalability of dApps, the alternative value of digital assets, the consumer adoption of cryptocurrencies?-?well, we have a ways to go.
Liqui is no longer able to provide liquidity for the Users left. We also do not see any economic point in providing you with our services.
What was the economic point of ICOs and airdrops again? To build community? To foster blockchain innovation? To see who is the last man standing?
If only the SEC was a more aggressive and responsible regulator, we might see the blockchain startups that have true viability left. No all altcoins are built equally. Not all blockchain startups are working on actual products, same old story.
Here is the list of a few crypto exchanges that announced their shutdown since the beginning of 2018:
- Mr. Exchange: Japan-based crypto exchange announced cease-and-desist citing regulatory concerns.
- Tokyo GateWay: Another Japanese exchange that withdrew its application with Financial Services Agency
- ZebPay: Indias premier crypto exchange closed operations after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut their banking links.
- BTCX India and ETHEX India: Other Indian exchanges which opted to shut its door after RBIs anti-Bitcoin stance.
- BitGrail: Italian crypto exchange forced to close down operations after three hours of launch. They blamed a court order.
- 1Broker: US-based crypto trading platform announced closer after SEC crackdown.
- Cryptopia: New Zealand-based crypto-to-crypto exchange discontinued operations after claiming that it got hacked.
As stock markets and stocks bounce back, so too should crypto. Though its not clear what will drive it or the objective measures that crypto market prices are actually tethered to besides sentiment and some mysterious demand for it.
Liqui, a small but a long-running crypto trading company in the Ukraine said its exchange was unable to provide liquidity to its customers. If you go broke after a little hardship perhaps you arent a legit startup. If you werent running lean all the while, you might be taking your last breath.
More Crypto Exchanges, crypto hedge funds, and bockchain startups are expected to rage quit in 2019.
