BitFinex Exits New York due to BitLicense

Yet another bitcoin startup left New York State and declined to comply with the BitLicense. BitFinex, the largest cryptocurrency trading platform in the U.S has followed the lead of Poloniex and Shapeshift, announcing the closure of their operations on their blog this week.

The BitFinex team wrote:

“Due to financial regulation changes in the State of New York, certain Bitfinex services are no longer available for New York Residents. Bitfinex is not applying for a BitLicense at this time. Accordingly, Bitfinex is modifying account privileges for New York Residents, effective August 10th, 2015.”

BitLicense requires any digital currency related startups and exchanges to pay US$5,000 in application fees, US$20,000 in legal fees.

ShapeShift founder Eric Voorhees said on twitter:

.@ferdousbhai $5k app fee + at least $20k legal bills + hundreds/thousands of mgmt time + compliance thereafter (which is the biggest part) — Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) August 7, 2015

BitFinex is the second bitcoin startup to leave New York this week, and at this rate, it may be a matter of time before all NY based startups leave the state.

All users of BitFinex are required to withdraw their cryptocurrency holdings from their accounts by August 15. If users fail to do so, their balances will be exchanged to USD at market rates, and will be available to access at any time.