The falls of different virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin, have been happening since the beginning of the year
The Spanish cryptocurrency platform 2gether has not been able to overcome the downturn that the sector is experiencing and has been forced to close down, leaving 100,000 users homeless, according to data from the Association of Financial Users (Asufin). The company announced this Wednesday that on July 10 it will charge 20 euros as a management expense due to the “impossibility of maintaining the free service.” From that moment on, both the platform’s website and the app are blocked and without the possibility of carrying out any management, according to Asufin.
“After five years serving the crypto community, we are forced to close the private account service. The lack of resources and the crypto winter prevent us from providing the service with the quality and guarantees with which other nearby providers are doing it, ”says the communication.
2gether thus becomes the first Spanish platform to cease its activities due to the crypto winter, a term used in the sector for periods like the current one, in which sharp falls in asset prices are experienced.
Asufin has already announced that it will undertake collective legal actions and that it will appear in the bankruptcy proceedings.
The platform made headlines in August 2020 after suffering a cyberattack on its accounts that resulted in the theft of 114 bitcoins and 276 ethers, equivalent to 1,183 million euros in cryptocurrencies at the exchange rate of that moment and 15% of the positions of Your clients.
At that time, it did not have the necessary funds to cover what was stolen from its clients’ accounts, so in January 2021, the startup managed to raise 1.5 million euros in a financing round, an amount that was used to reinforce the security of the company and its coverage model, as well as to replace the stolen funds.
“Many things have happened in the crypto world because there have been many project promoters with bad intentions historically and when a problem has arisen, they have not shown their faces and have closed,” explained the then CEO of the company, Pablo Ferraz, in an interview with Europa Press.
On the other hand, at the end of July last year, the platform partnered with the fintech Fellow Funders to offer innovative alternative investment and financing solutions adapted to the new regulatory frameworks, with a focus on creating high value-added products and services. .
2gether is not alone: cryptocurrency lending and trading platform Vauld ordered Monday to block all withdrawals, transactions and deposits “effective immediately”, while the firm studies its possible restructuring options after the substantial withdrawals. to customers in recent days.
Voyager Digital, for its part, voluntarily availed itself this Wednesday of the protection of Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Law in order to undertake the restructuring of the company and maximize value for all interested parties.
The crypto winter is not only affecting the small ones: Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, decided on June 13 to temporarily suspend bitcoin withdrawals, the same day that Celsius suspended them as a result of “extreme conditions.” ” From the market.
The list is long and for the moment, there are no signs of improvement in the sector. Bitcoin, the best-known cryptocurrency, was quoted this Thursday at 11 a.m. at 20,496 dollars (20,107 euros), 1.52% more than yesterday but far from its maximum, while ethereum was changed at that time to 1,176 dollars (1,153 euros), 3.02% more.
The falls recorded in recent months have erased thousands of jobs. The Austrian platform Bitpanda announced a few weeks ago the reduction of its workforce to 730 employees, while Coinbase laid off 1,100 workers and other platforms such as Gemini were forced to lay off 10% of their workforce.
www.hoy.es
Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.