Poloniex shuts trading for US customers; heads toward rebranding

Cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex has closed its trading services for the US residents on November 1, 2019. The official announcement read on its Twitter handle read:

“IMPORTANT: US customers are no longer able to trade on Poloniex. US customers should stop depositing immediately and withdraw their assets by December 15, 2019, from poloniexus.circle.com”

Poloniex had earlier announced, in a series of tweets, that it would be spinning out from its parent company, Circle, in a bid to innovate for global customers. According to the platform, its new exchange called Polo Digital Assets, Ltd will be backed by a major investment group. US customers, however, will not be a part of the spin-out.

Digital payment giant, Circle had acquired Poloniex in 2018 and according to the reports, the deal closed for approximately $400 million. The high-profile acquisition was touted to rival the likes of Coinbase and Kraken which already had a strong foothold in the US. Despite concerns on the regulatory front, the platform received “informal assurances”, according to Nathaniel Popper from NY Times.

Less than two years later, Poloniex rolled out of Circle and was heading for spinning out an all-new exchange. While the decision to shut down the US customers from its revamped platform remained unclear, with this move Poloniex joined the list of several other exchanges who limited their offering by excluding the US user base.