coincodex.com
Key highlights:
- Bitstamp will be charging an €10 inactivity fee for inactive accounts
- The fee will impact accounts with a balance of less than €200 and haven't used the exchange's services for 12 months or more
- Cryptocurrency trading volumes have dried up alongside the decline of cryptocurrency prices, impacting the revenue generated by exchanges
Bitstamp will be charging a €10 inactivity fee to certain accounts
The Bitstamp cryptocurrency exchange says it will charge an inactivity fee for certain accounts. According to an announcement from the company, the inactivity fee of €10 will be charged to accounts that have a balance of less than €200 (approximately $204) that haven’t “traded, deposited, withdrawn or staked assets with Bitstamp Earn” over a 12-month period. The new fee will come into effect on August 1.
According to Bitstamp, the majority of their customers will not be impacted by the new fee. The exchange says it introduced the inactivity because inactive accounts represent a cost:
“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.”
While the move has resulted in bad publicity for Bitstamp, it’s not out of the question that other exchanges could follow suit with similar fees as revenue from trading fees dries up. Cryptocurrency exchange trading volumes have declined along with the prices of top crypto assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Several exchanges, including Coinbase, Crypto.com, Gemini and others have announced layoffs amidst declining trade volumes and pessimistic macroeconomic forecasts.
Bitstamp was founded in 2011, making it one of the most established cryptocurrency exchanges in the industry. In 2018, Belgium-based investment company NXMH acquired an 80% stake in the company in a deal that was reportedly worth $400 million. In May this year, Bitstamp appointed Jean-Baptiste Graftieaux as its new CEO. Graftieaux worked as Bitstamp’s chief compliance officer between 2014 and 2016.
In the last 24 hours, Bitstamp handled around $140.9 million in trading volume. The exchange’s most popular trading pair was BTC/USD, which accounted for $56.3 million of the volume.