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(Reuters) – Crypto exchange Bittrex Inc filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, three weeks after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused it of operating an unregistered securities exchange.
Bittrex ceased operations in the United States on April 30, and it said the bankruptcy filing would not impact Bittrex Global, which serves customers outside the United States.
Bittrex said that it was still holding crypto assets of U.S. customers who did not withdraw funds before April 30.
Those assets are “safe and secure” and Bittrex said it intended to ask the bankruptcy court for a limited re-opening of customer accounts so that the crypto could be distributed back to customers.
The SEC sued Bittrex on April 17, alleging that former CEO William Shihara encouraged crypto asset issuers seeking to make their tokens available on the company’s platform to delete public statements that could lead regulators to investigate those token offerings as securities.
Bittrex has denied the SEC’s allegations, saying the crypto assets on its platform were not securities or investment contracts.
