Even though bitcoin adoption seems to be thriving all over the world, things have not necessarily become easier for companies venturing into the cryptocurrency space. BitNZ, one of New Zealand’s primary bitcoin exchanges, will be shutting down on April 15. According to the team, the unwillingness of banks to cooperate with companies in the bitcoin world makes it impossible for BitNZ to continue offering its services. A very saddening development, that much is certain.
Curtain Call Looms for BitNZ
It is not the first, nor the last time a bitcoin exchange will shut down its doors due to problems with their partner bank. In fact, it appears financial institutions willingly block bitcoin exchanges from operating in specific countries. That is a very disturbing development, as most people rely on these intermediary services to buy and sell cryptocurrency with some level of convenience.
For BitNZ, these ongoing issues are forcing the company to shut down operations in the near future. The issues with their bank have caused so many problems it is no longer feasible to serve customers who are looking to buy and sell cryptocurrency in exchange for NZ Dollars. For some reason, their bank has decided to no longer deal with the frequent volume generated by this platform, as they have a lot of incoming and outgoing transactions every single day.
Thankfully, users of the BitNZ platform will still be able to withdraw their funds, although the deadline has been set for April 15. It appears the platform will no longer allow users to buy cryptocurrency with NZ Dollars from now until that date, though. It is sad to hear yet another exchange falls victim to the whims of financial institutions who may or may not be keen on cryptocurrency. For third-party service providers, such as bitcoin exchanges, this can be the downfall of their business model altogether.
BitNZ has been around for quite some time, though, as the platform originally became popular in 2011. Ever since that time, the company has processed over 11,000 bank transactions, despite facing similar struggles not too long ago. Just over a year ago, BitNZ was unable to accept fiat currency deposits, although this issue was eventually resolved. Unfortunately, it would appear that was also the beginning of the end for the company. New Zealand bitcoin enthusiasts will have to find another exchange to buy and sell cryptocurrency, or rely on peer-to-peer trading.
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