BitLicense Restrictions for New York Customers - Bitfinex blog
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BitLicense Restrictions for New York Customers

Due to financial regulation changes in the State of New York, certain Bitfinex services are no longer available for New York Residents.

Pursuant to Title 23, Chapter I, Part 200 of the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations (the “Regulations”), persons may not engage in Virtual Currency Business Activities (as defined in subsection 200.2(q) of the Regulations) involving New York or New York Residents (as defined in subsection 200.2(h) of the Regulations) without a license issued by the New York Department of Financial Services: the so-called ’BitLicense.’ The effective date of the Regulations is June 24th, 2015. Persons already engaging in activities that require a BitLicense must apply for a license by August 8th, 2015.

Bitfinex is not applying for a BitLicense at this time. Accordingly, Bitfinex is modifying account privileges for New York Residents, effective August 8th, 2015.

Account & Service Changes

All New York Residents must withdraw all cryptocurrency balances currently held on Bitfinex by 4:00 pm EDT on August 15, 2015. We strongly encourage New York Residents to specify ‘Locked Withdrawal Addresses’ that we will use to automatically sweep any funds that may be sent to one of your deposit addresses in the future. Failure to set these Locked Withdrawal Addresses will result in the automatic liquidation of future deposits.

As New York Residents may no longer keep cryptocurrency balances, they will no longer have access to the following features on Bitfinex.com.

  • Exchange: New York Residents cannot use any of the features in the ‘Exchange’ tab on Bitfinex.com. They cannot exchange USD for BTC or LTC, nor can they exchange BTC for LTC and vice versa.
  • Margin Trading: New York Residents cannot use cryptocurrencies as collateral on margin positions or use the claim position feature. Also, trading in the LTC/BTC pair will be restricted.
  • Swaps Market: New York Residents cannot offer BTC or LTC swaps.

We understand that this is an inconvenience, but users who do not remove their cryptocurrency holdings from their Bitfinex accounts (or set up a locked withdrawal address) by 4:00 pm EDT on August 15th, 2015 will have their cryptocurrency balances exchanged to USD at market rates. The resulting USD balance will be available in customer accounts for customers to access at any time. Outstanding cryptocurrency swaps will be allowed to expire in due course with resulting free cryptocurrency balance also being subject to automatic liquidation in the absence of a locked withdrawal address.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or issue that this may cause. We continue to monitor the evolving regulatory landscape in New York and elsewhere in an effort to offer superior service, consumer protection and security, and to remain compliant with applicable laws.