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UK Bitcoin Exchange Bit121 Temporarily Closes Down
Bit121 Shutdown
UK-based bitcoin exchange, Bit121, has closed its doors for the time being, as of today. There has been no word of when the exchange will reopen its doors.
The sites’ functionality was halted back on March 26th, but users can still view account statements and balances. They will also be able to withdraw sterling balances that are more than £50. For the inconvenience, the £10 withdrawal fee will be waved. Furthermore, users will be allowed to withdraw any bitcoin balance amount they choose. Before temporarily closing down the exchange, Bit121 advised its customers to withdraw all of their bitcoins for extra precautionary reasons.
Previously, the exchange was working with Pacent services, who worked with Barclays beforehand. However, Bit121 had a hard time getting a new banking partner.
The exchange stated “rather than have the website sitting dormant with minimal activity, it made sense to temporarily close Bit121 until a suitable banking partner has been secured.”
The UK exchange says on its website “we like to think we have simply gone into hibernation, and we fully intend to re-open at some point in the near future.”
On behalf of the bitcoin exchange, the company’s chief executive Jim Iddiols says that Bit121 has a trading volume near £100,00, and has gained over 500 users.
Bitcoin Exchanges
Fortunately, it seems as though Bit121 has not been compromised in any way. It appears that they are simply taking time to rev up their services. This could be beneficial as the company may be able to find and fix any flaws or weaknesses in their strategy or security before anyone else does.
The exchange has shown its reliability in that bitcoins have been given back to users before closing down the operation. However, for an exchange to close down almost instantaneously means that something was wrong. No specifics have been given as to why the exchange was shut, but hopefully it was nothing they can’t bounce back from.
Institutions like the infamous Mt. Gox, have had a negative impact on bitcoin exchanges and have even caused the price of bitcoin to drop. Bitcoin’s value has yet to recover from the escalating Mt. Gox incident. Bit121 has assured that they will not be blamed for any such actions.
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