Cryptocurrency
Crypto exchanges keep closing: what happens if a crypto exchange goes bust?
A few days ago, Coinjournal presented a report on the number of exchanges that went bankrupt. As it turned out, from 2014 to 2022 at least 42 percent of the platforms stopped working completely and never came back. Over the past four years, the number of bankruptcies has increased significantly. In 2018, 23 exchanges went bankrupt. In 2019, that number increased by 252 percent. In 2020, another 17%. What should users do in this situation? Can you use a cryptocurrency exchange?
In 2021, the number of bankruptcies decreased slightly. But considering the situation now, when the market has been dominated by crypto winter for several months and the forecasts are disappointing, the number of bankrupt platforms will increase again. So before you transfer money, find out, is a crypto exchange legit?
What happens if a crypto exchange goes bankrupt: causes of exchange closures in recent years?
The closure and bankruptcy of cryptocurrency exchanges is caused by a complex of reasons. This leads to site closures; customers can’t withdraw funds, and administration stops communicating with them.
Scam
Exchanges are closed because they are scam projects. A scam is a financial scam aimed at bringing profit only to the organizers of the scheme. A scam is also a deliberate bankruptcy of the company, stopping any payments to the clients. Even though the network indicates a set of signs indicating that the project may be a scam, users still become their victims.
Fraudsters have come up with more and more sophisticated schemes to defraud users. Not infrequently, even experienced investors invest in such exchangers and then cannot return the funds because the sites stop operating. The administration disappears with the looted finances.
Pressure from the regulators
Another reason for the elimination of stock exchanges is the pressure from government regulators. They impose more and more stringent rules to control exchanges. The reason for such increased control is to minimize the risk of criminal use of cryptocurrencies and circumventing sanctions with them.
Recall that in January 2022 in the EU began to work. 5 Directive. It obliges all cryptocurrency companies to verify every client working with digital assets.
Not all exchanges can withstand the pressure and control of state supervisors and regulators.
Exchange hacks
Exchanges are also closing due to being attacked by cybercriminals. It is impossible to predict which exchange will be attacked. Hackers carefully look for vulnerabilities in exchanges’ security systems before hacking. Sometimes attacks result in a large percentage of customer funds being stolen. Exchanges are then unable to reimburse users and shut down.
Incorrect strategy of site development
Incorrect strategy means miscalculations of exchanges’ management, lack of experienced team of marketers, unable to increase the customer base. Because competition in the market is increasing, sites that could not offer exclusive tools for working with assets to customers become outsiders.
The number of transactions on them is reduced; capitalization is falling; customers are leaving for other platforms. Moreover, this can happen even to platforms operating for 5-10 years.
Results
If a crypto exchange goes bankrupt, you probably won’t see your money again. There are a lot of reasons exchanges are closed and stop functioning. Most likely, in 2022, the number of exchanges that will have to close will increase compared to 2021. The long recession in the market, scandals with projects such as Terra, accusations from regulators of illegal trading, hacker attacks, all this does not give cause for optimism.
Hong Kong has allocated another $50 million to accelerate the development of the crypto industry after local authorities allocated HK$50 million (about $6.37 million) in late February to develop the Web3 direction. This is stated in a press release on the website of the government.
Legalization of cryptocurrencies in Hong Kong
According to the head of the Financial Services and Treasury Bureau of Hong Kong (FSTB) Christopher Hui, the pool of funds will be allocated, in particular, to organize major international Web3-events. Hui also said that the government will organize educational programs for young people, for which preparations have already begun.
In addition, the 2023 budget provides for the creation of a working group to focus on developing virtual assets and study the situation in the crypto market, development opportunities and the need for changes in regulation.
“Hong Kong is well positioned to become a leading hub for Web3 in Asia and beyond, and we attach great importance to virtual assets (VA) and Web3. The government is committed at a high level to developing this sector and providing a comprehensive support system for enterprises,” Hui said.
He added that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is now working on regulating stablecoins to introduce them into the economy next year. The country also plans to improve securities regulations so that retail investors can access ETFs based on cryptocurrency futures.
Despite several personal initiatives, Hong Kong authorities are also working closely with mainland China, testing international payments in the digital currency and working with the Central Bank. In all, as of the end of February, more than 80 Chinese companies had expressed interest in operating in Hong Kong.
Bloomberg wrote about China’s support back in late February. The agency pointed out that after Hong Kong set out to develop the crypto industry last October, Chinese officials have become more frequent visitors to Hong Kong. According to sources, this interest is because Beijing wants to use the city as a testing ground for digital assets amid tight control of crypto activity on the mainland.
We previously reported that the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank is spurring demand for crypto apps.
Stablecoin issuer USDT is rapidly printing “digital dollars” in the TRON (TRC-20) ecosystem. This time, Tether printed another billion dollars in USDT, according to transaction details. The total number of USDT in circulation in the TRON ecosystem is over 42.1 billion USDT. By comparison, the Ethereum ecosystem issued significantly less – 34.2 billion USDT.
As TRONScan data shows, this is the second billion-dollar tranche issued by Tether for TRON. The last time the USDT-issuing company issued a similar amount of Stablecoin was on March 14. Since the beginning of 2023, this is the fourth transaction to issue such a large amount of USDT. As of 2023, the largest issuance occurred in February. At that time, Tether issued two billion dollars in USDT at once.
Amid the news, bitcoin barely reacted to the USDT pump. According to TradingView, the bitcoin (BTC) exchange rate in the BTC/USDT trading pair is $27,949, up just 1.4% overnight. Bitcoin has a market capitalization of $540.4 billion.
In early March, The Wall Street Journal revealed that Tether had opened bank accounts using fake documents and shell companies. It turned out that one of Tether’s Turkish accounts had been opened in the name of Denix Royal Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi, which had previously been caught laundering money for a terrorist group.
Tether chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino ridiculed the publication on Twitter and said the WSJ’s information was untrue. Tether said it adheres to legal requirements to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, and uses KYC mechanisms of the highest level. Renowned cryptocurrency critic Molly White, for her part, said that The Wall Street Journal journalists couldn’t “just make this stuff up.”
We previously reported that major cryptocurrency exchanges have moved offshore.
According to a report by platform CoinGecko, 21 of the 30 largest crypto exchanges (70%) are based in offshore financial centers – territories that want to attract companies from abroad through loyal laws and schemes with low or no taxation.
Analysts of the service note that offshore zones, as a rule, offer non-residents more financial services and on more loyal terms than “in the home country”.
Where are crypto exchanges registered? They choose islands
Seychelles, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands were among the most popular offshore locations for cryptocurrencies. These territories are also considered tax havens for many corporations.
Also, one in five Crypto exchanges in offshore locations (20%) are registered in the Seychelles. This jurisdiction has become home to many centralized exchanges. Among them, there are well-known major platforms such as OKX, KuCoin, and MEXC Global. Many companies are “moving” to the Seychelles because the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA Seychelles) refuses to license and oversee activities or companies related to cryptocurrencies.
In total, according to CoinGecko, the top 30 cryptocurrency exchanges are listed in 15 different countries: 11 of the 30 platforms (37%) are in North America – mostly in the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and the United States. The number of companies located in Europe, Asia and Africa is evenly split: 20% each (or 6 countries).
The number of companies offshore may grow
Because of stricter U.S. regulators’ policies toward cryptocurrency companies, many firms are having to move to more cryptocurrency-friendly countries.
For example, the Hong Kong government, to turn the state into a new crypto hub, has allowed retail investors to trade digital tokens such as bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). The Hong Kong authorities themselves admit that they want to create a “favorable environment” for developing the local crypto industry.
Also, Ras Al Khaimah, one of seven regions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is preparing to open a free zone for cryptocurrency companies. Entrepreneurs in these areas own 100% of their businesses and have their own tax schemes and regulatory frameworks.
We previously reported on the Top 5 low-cost AI tokens with huge growth potential.
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