Bonfida DEX Restricts Access to US-based Users

Serum-based, Bonfida decentralized digital asset exchange (DEX) is the latest decentralized finance (DeFi) project to put the US in its restrictive region list. According to Bonfida's terms of use, the Bonfida DEX is not available to residents of the USA. With this, the US has joined the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Belarus, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Crimea region of Ukraine, Cuba, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and Zimbabwe. “If you intend to enter into any transactions involving derivatives, you also confirm that you are not located in, incorporated or otherwise established in, or a citizen or resident of, a Derivatives Restricted Jurisdiction,” said the exchange. Last month, the decentralized exchange aggregator 1Inch also started geofencing US IP addresses. As we reported, 1Inch also includes the US in its list of restricted territories and blocks people from these regions from using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access the website. The platform said that it had been planning to launch a new product in the US in compliance with the regulatory requirements. DEX dYdX has also updated its terms of service to mention that if the user is a US citizen or resident, they are required to physically settle all trades made using dYdX and fully close and physically settle all open margin positions within 28 days. US-based users are also not permitted to access or trade any of the platform’s advanced features, including Bitcoin trading and perpetual contracts on dYdX. They are also not to use a VPN to modify your internet protocol address or otherwise circumvent or attempt to circumvent this prohibition. Earlier last month, dYdX users celebrated a massive DYDX token airdrop worth thousands of dollars for many people. However, those who traded on the platform using an IP address within the United States were not eligible for the airdrop or to participate in its staking program. “This has become almost standard now. People don’t need the US market to win anymore, so US regulators no longer have leverage with truly global founders. The future has already escaped their grasp,” commented Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz.