The firm, which offered tokenized shares in companies listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, announced the move following a vote by its board on Monday to discontinue operations as it pursues “a merger or outright sell of the company.”
DX.Exchange is hitting pause as it seeks a new owner.
Should a buyer not be found, “the exchange may not resume operations”, the company wrote. Deposits have been suspended and customers have until Nov. 15 to withdraw funds.
“The costs of providing the required level of security, support and technology is not economically feasible on our own”, the firm said in the announcement.
During its January 2019 launch, customers could buy tokenized shares in Google parent company Alphabet, Apple, Amazon.com, Facebook, Microsoft, Tesla, Netflix, Baidu, Intel Corporation and Nvidia.
DX.Exchange’s temporary closure comes on the heels of Circle’s spin-off of Poloniex two years after the fintech firm purchased the exchange for $400 million. Circle co-founders Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville said they plan on shifting focus towards its USDC stablecoin and SeedInvest crowdfunding platform. An undisclosed Asia-based investment group, Polo Digital Assets, Ltd., purchased the exchange.
Dutch Derivatives Exchange Deribit to Move to Crypto-Friendly Panama
Deribit is moving to warmer waters, citing regulatory concerns.
Announced Thursday, the Amsterdam-based crypto derivatives exchange will operate out of Panama as DRB Panama Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of current platform Deribit B.V., beginning Feb. 10.
The company claimed the Netherlands’ presumed adoption of “very strict” anti-money laundering (AML) regulations applied to cryptocurrency firms spurred the trans-Atlantic voyage.
“If Deribit falls under these new regulations, this would mean that we have to demand an extensive amount of information from our current and future customers”, the exchange wrote in a blog post.
Rumors concerning Deribit’s position within the Netherlands began in October 2019 following CEO John Jansen’s appearance on the Flippening podcast. Over the winter months, numerous Dutch crypto firms engaged in a back and forth with Dutch regulators over the nation’s self-guided implementation of the EU’s 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD 5).
“We believe that crypto markets should be freely available to most, and the new regulations would put too-high barriers for the majority of traders, both regulatory and cost-wise”, Deribit wrote.
Surprisingly, additional know-your-customer (KYC) regulations were also announced by the exchange Thursday. U.S. customers are still barred from operating on the exchange, which does not process fiat currency.
CoinDesk has reached out for comment and will update this piece as necessary.
