Line-owned crypto exchange Bitfront to shut down by March 2023

Crypto exchange Bitfront will shut down its services in a staggered approach up until the end of March 2023.

Bitfront’s shutdown process begins on Nov. 28, with the suspension of new account signups, the platform said in an announcement. Credit card deposits for existing users have already been stopped. The next step of the process takes place in December when the platform will suspend all crypto and U.S. dollar deposits. At that time, Bitfront will also cancel all open trading orders.

The final closure of withdrawals will happen on March 31, 2023, at 05:00 AM UTC. Bitfront advised customers to ensure they remove all of their funds from the platform on or before that date.

Bitfront cited the challenges of the “rapidly evolving” crypto market as part of the reason for shutting down the platform. The crypto exchange stated that it had tried to overcome these challenges to no avail.

For Bitfront, shuttering the platform is a necessary step to protect Line’s blockchain ecosystem. Japanese social media giant Line launched Bitfront in February 2020 as a U.S.-based exchange. At the time, the company had shut down its Singapore-based crypto exchange Bitbox.

Bitfront is the latest crypto exchange to be affected by the current crypto market decline. The year-long bear market has also been further exacerbated by the recent collapse of FTX, formerly one of the biggest crypto exchanges. The FTX collapse reportedly triggered a wave of liquidity outflows from exchanges. This has caused some smaller platforms like AAX to experience solvency issues.

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