Bittrex is implementing a “strict coin listing criteria” to go into effect on March 30th. Coins that do not meet these criteria or do not “have a properly functioning blockchain and wallet” will be automatically delisted from the exchange.
About 82 altcoins will be getting the boot as Bittrex seeks to purge the exchange of low performing coins. The mass delisting was announced by Bittrex earlier this month and expected to take effect in 10 days. The announcement was aimed at giving notice to the public for owners of the affected coins to withdraw their holdings before the due date.
Reasons given for this strong action by Bittrex include maintaining the quality of coins available on the exchange, ensuring coins adhere to the strict listing criteria and purging the exchange of non-performing coins. In addition, Bittrex seeks to ensure coins listed in its exchange are regulatory compliant, which means that coins which are suspected to be securities will be delisted.
Out of the 82 coins affected, 28 of them either have “broken blockchains or wallets that will not allow withdrawals.”, the remaining 54 are being delisted due to thin liquidity.
Here are the tokens to be delisted: 8BIT, ADC, AM, AMS, APEX, ARB, BITS, BITZ, BLC, BOB, BSTY, BTA, CCN, CRBIT, CRYPT, DAR, DGC, DRACO, DTC, FC2, FRK, FSC2, GEMZ, GHC, GP, GRT, HKG, HYPER, HZ, J, KR, LXC, MAX, MEC, METAL, MND, MTR, MZC, NAUT, NET, NEU, NTRN, OC, ORB, PRIME, PXI, ROOT, SCOT, SCRT, SFR, SLG, SLING, SOON, SPRTS, SSD, STEPS, STV, SWING, TES, TIT, TRI, TRK, U, UFO, UNIQ, UNIT, UNO, UTC, VIOR, VIRAL, VP, WARP, XAUR, XBB, XC, XCO, XDQ, XPY, XQN, XSEED, XTC, and YBC.
Bittrex Shuts Out US Embargoed Nations
At the same time the delisting announcement was made, Bittrex updated its terms of service which essentially prohibited any “citizen or resident of any state, country, territory or other jurisdiction that is embargoed by the United States” from transacting on the exchange. The embargoed countries include Cuba, the Crimean region, Iran, North Korea and Syria.
It is possible the exchange’s actions were influenced by the SEC. Prior to the delisting announcement, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had announced that any:
“Online trading platform […] offers [the] trading of digital assets that are securities […] then the platform must register with the SEC as a national securities exchange or be exempt from regulation.”
However, on March 7th, Bittrex responded to SEC’s announcement by stating that it:
“is committed to incubating new blockchain technology projects and offering innovative, compliant digital tokens to our customers. Bittrex uses a robust digital token review process to ensure the tokens are listed on the exchange are compliant with U.S law and are not considered securities.”
In addition, Bittrex said it “look[s] forward to continuing [its] proactive dialogue with the SEC and other regulators on how to build a secure, fully-regulated environment for blockchain.”
