After strong backlash, cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp announced earlier today that they’re scrapping the “inactivity fee” that was recently introduced for their users.
A press release from Bitstamp said
“Listening to our customers is part of our service DNA. Bitstamp’s goal has always been to be a secure, reliable trading platform that provides industry leading services, and we do not intend to deviate from our path.”
The Luxembourg-based firm had proposed to levy an inactivity fee of €10 a month – which according to the company, was a “hard decision” that had to be made due to dwindling trading volumes as a result of the market downturn.
Per the plan, non-US users with a balance of fewer than 200 euros in their accounts, who in the last 12 months preceding August 1 hadn’t traded, withdrawn, deposited, or staked assets would be considered “inactive”.
The company had said earlier in a blog post on July 1
“Nobody loves fees (we don’t either!) but keeping inactive accounts on the books is a cost, and in order for us to continue providing great services to all our customers, we made the hard decision to implement the Inactivity Fee.”
Immediately after the announcement, Bitstamp users took to Twitter to express their frustrations.
Rival exchange Okcoin also joined in taking a dig at the company for introducing such a measure…
The crypto winter hasn’t been kind to many crypto firms, especially exchanges, with Bitstamp losing almost 50% of their trading volume.
Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-Fried led crypto exchange FTX has expanded to stock trading to weather the storm.
