A judge in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has told Bittrex, a crypto trading platform, that customer withdrawals can resume again on June 15.
The decision doesn’t answer the question of whether or not United States government claims should come first, which was one of the objections against its plan. FinCEN and OFAC gave Bittrex credits worth millions of dollars.
On June 13, judge Brendan Shannon order read, “Objections (if any) to the Motion having been withdrawn, resolved or overruled on the merits.”
Moreover, It went on to say that neither the motion nor the order made a decision about whether crypto assets or transactions with them are securities. The order also said that it doesn’t decide on the priority of creditors or stop the United States from taking assets back from customers who don’t pay in full. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which Bittrex owes $24 million to, is its biggest borrower.
David Maria, Bittrex general counsel, says, “We are happy that the court will allow us to let customers access their accounts and withdraw any remaining assets, and we hope that our customers will take advantage of this opportunity. Our goal has always been to make all of our customers whole during this process.”
Maria said that the platform should be ready for withdrawals by 3 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m. UTC) on June 15.
The Bittrex based in Seattle said it would stop doing business in the U.S. by the end of April. Moreover, it announced its bankruptcy in May after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued it for selling securities without being registered.
@Arbitrum has landed on Bittrex Global.
The $ARB wallet is now open, and trading will begin shortly on https://t.co/WGrJdX34kU. pic.twitter.com/JT4hj9yULC
— Bittrex Global (@BittrexGlobal) June 15, 2023
All of this happened after OFAC and the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) gave fines of $24 million and $29 million. They fined it for breaking sanctions against Crimea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria. At that time, FinCEN gave the exchange a credit of $5 million. Moreover, OFAC gave it a credit of $24 million. The U.S. Justice Department had been against a plan by Bittrex to pay back customers, saying that government claims were more important.
