After months of saying it would shut down operations in the U.S. and weeks of being sued by the SEC, cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex filed for bankruptcy in the state of Delaware on Monday.
Chapter 11 Dockets’ Randall Reese has published a court petition in which the exchange claims it has over a hundred thousand creditors and assets and liabilities totaling between $500 million and $1 billion.
In February, Bittrex’s American arm laid off eighty employees, and in March, the company said it will shut down completely by the end of April. The international cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex Global is unaffected by the recent adjustments.
Bittrex was sued by the SEC in the middle of April on charges that it was acting as a national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency, despite the fact that it was planning to leave the U.S. Bittrex Global and its previous CEO, Bill Shihara, were also sued by the SEC. Last month, Bittrex Global CEO Oliver Linch said the exchange will be contesting the claims in court, but a bankruptcy procedure may make that more difficult.
Bittrex has joined FTX and other cryptocurrency-related businesses in declaring bankruptcy. These include exchanges and lenders like as Celsius, Voyager, and BlockFi.
