following intense criticism | best app for trading cryptocurrency
After receiving harsh criticism, Bitstamp retracts its proposal to charge customers a €10 "inactivity tax" and instead cites administrative costs as the cause.
Following massive online protests, the Luxembourg-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp has abandoned plans to enact an inactivity fee.
The exchange had previously stated at the end of June that starting in the first week of August, it would impose a €10 fee on inactive users on its platform who had account balances of €200 or less.
Users of Bitstamp Limited and Bitstamp Global Ltd were supposed to start paying the inactivity fee on August 1; Bitstamp Europe S.A. clients were supposed to start paying it on August 6. According to the charge schedule for the corporation, users of Bitstamp who are based in the United States were exempt from the proposed fee.
Social media users slammed the idea, with well-known cryptocurrency accounts joining the chorus of critics who denounced the exchange's suggested intentions.
Bitstamp to find out why the inactivity penalty was initially decided to be implemented and whether the recent bear market in bitcoin markets played a factor in the now-scrapped measure.
The key justification for instituting the suggested inactivity fee, according to an exchange representative, is the administrative overhead associated with retaining dormant accounts. Bitstamp reiterated that the move was not influenced by the state of the market while stating that it had been under consideration since last year.
While acknowledging the unrest in the cryptocurrency markets, the representative said Bitstamp had "zero exposure to any of these companies, that our financial situation remains robust and healthy, and that we are continuing to invest in our product and technology."
The initial notification has now been taken down from the business's website and social media pages, but the information about the inactivity fee is still visible on the Bitstamp fee schedule page. The business also acknowledged that after the initial announcement of the proposed price, several users had asked to have their accounts closed.
In order to avoid paying the fee, users who had been inactive for more than a year had to purchase or sell cryptocurrency on the exchange, deposit or withdraw money in fiat or cryptocurrency, or stake on Bitstamp Earn.
Bitstamp had intended to remove €10 from an inactive user's fiat currency balance or, if their fiat balance was less, the same amount from their bitcoin holdings.
