New York city view from the high-rise building windows in the day. Freepik
New York customers of the Bittrex cryptocurrency exchange now have more time to withdraw their funds, the company announced on 24 October.
The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has requested that the exchange postpone the account closure for its New York users once again, allowing them to withdraw funds, but not to deposit or trade.
This marks the second time that the exchange has received approval to extend its deadline since it was denied a NY BitLicense back in April.
On 10 April the NYDFS denied the regulatory license application of Bittrex, saying that the exchanges “current policies and procedures are either non-existent or inadequate”, and that it had an inadequate training program for employees.
The exchange then was given until 9 June to ceased conducting business in New York, and for its customers to withdraw deposits on the exchange. That deadline was then extended to 24 October, to allow customers who missed the June deadline to withdraw their funds.
The New York BitLicense is arguably one of the hardest types of state regulation in the U.S.. Back in 2015, San Francisco-based crypto exchange Kraken decided to leave the state because of it, while Bittrex was forced to leave it after failing to obtain the License.
Now according to the NYDFS Superintendent Linda Lacewell, who was speaking during the DC Fintech Week, that same license will be revisited, and adapted to the rabidly evolving crypto space.
She said:
“This is a good time to take a look, a responsible look and see how our regime is fitting the current market and… what if any adjustments should we think about making to continue to adapt to a changing industry…that’s going to be one of the things that we do.”