US Crypto Exchange Bittrex Files for Bankruptcy in Delaware

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Crypto exchange Bittrex filed for bankruptcy in the US state of Delaware on Monday, months after announcing it would end operations in the country and weeks after being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC ).

The exchange estimates it has more than 100,000 creditors, with liabilities and assets both estimated to be in the range of $500 million to $1 billion, according to a court filing shared by Randall Reese of Chapter 11 Dockets, a tracker of bankruptcy.

Despite Bittrex’s impending exit from the United States, the SEC sued it in mid-April over allegations that it operated a national securities exchange, brokerage and clearing agency. The SEC also sued former Bittrex CEO Bill Shihara and Bittrex Global. Bittrex Global CEO Oliver Linch said last month that the exchange intended to challenge the charges in court, but bankruptcy proceedings could make that more difficult.

Bittrex is the latest crypto entity to file for bankruptcy, joining fellow FTX and a host of lenders like Celsius, Voyager and BlockFi.

In documents filed with the Delaware court, Evan Hengel, co-director of restructuring at Bittrex, said customers would get a “100% similar distribution of cryptocurrency” under its liquidation plan, their allowing access to the Bittrex platform and withdrawal. their crypto.

The company “faces an unsustainable regulatory and economic environment” given “the lack of regulatory clarity in the United States [which] created a substantial negative economic impact on the digital asset industry and resulted in overlapping regulatory burdens and skyrocketing regulatory costs,” Hengel said.

Richie Lai, the company’s co-founder and CEO, tweeted that filing for bankruptcy was the “cleanest way to bury the baby”, but that Bittrex “still has 100% of all client funds”.

UPDATE (May 9, 07:30 UTC): Adds comments from Evan Hengel, Richie Lai.

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