This doesn't surprise me, and I expect other large exchanges to follow suite.<p>Although the intentions of many US cryptocurrency regulations are to protect US residents/investors, they are instead leading to the exclusion of US residents from everything cryptocurrency-related.<p>No one wants to touch US residents when cryptocurrencies are involved. Exchanges turn you down. ICOs tell you that you are not allowed to participate or outright block you. Gambling websites don't want to touch you either, of course. Neither do derivatives platforms, some sites with margin trading, and many sites with other types of speculation, such as sports betting, prediction markets, etc.<p>It's easier to just exclude US residents instead of dedicating significant time and resources in trying to comply with new regulations that don't fit new technology as well as they should.
According to this video (possibly fake, as the source has been removed), Bitfinex often played cat-and-mouse games with regards to banking partnerships in the US:<p><a href="https://youtu.be/62cvxPIDBGY" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/62cvxPIDBGY</a><p>The spoofy and Tether thing does lead to some suspicious stuff as well
Between this and the Bitcoin split thing[1], I wonder if there's something going on behind the scenes at Bitfinex? I read through an article about alleged "spoofing" at Bitfinex[2] but not sure if I 100% believe it. Does anyone have any ideas on what's going on the general shadiness of Bitfinex?<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-02/bitcoin-exchange-had-too-many-bitcoins" rel="nofollow">https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-02/bitcoin-e...</a><p>[2]: <a href="https://hackernoon.com/meet-spoofy-how-a-single-entity-dominates-the-price-of-bitcoin-39c711d28eb4" rel="nofollow">https://hackernoon.com/meet-spoofy-how-a-single-entity-domin...</a>