CoinEx cryptocurrency exchange is stopping its business in China as the government there cracks down on crypto, Cointelegraph reported.
The company said it will be retiring user accounts verified as mainland China citizens, according to the report. Those linked to a mobile phone number from mainland China will be included too.
The exchange has asked those users to withdraw their crypto assets from the platform before Oct. 31, after which time the exchange will be making it so the only service available “will be withdrawal, that is, functions such as deposit and trading will be closed and only the withdrawal service is supported,” the exchange said, per the report.
In other news, a Missouri mayor has pledged to give $1,000 in bitcoin to every household in his town, The Independent reported.
Jayson Stewart, mayor of Cool Valley, has said crypto has the potential to drive social change and could help smooth out the flaws in the economic system, according to the report.
“[Bitcoin] has given me a hope and an optimism that we can overcome some of the worst parts of the system that we’re born into and actually create a future exactly how we want it to be,” he told Bitcoin Magazine, per the report.
He said there is a level of confidence from bitcoin that is “fundamentally American,” with the focus on freedom, personal liberty and self-sovereignty, the report stated.
Meanwhile, Bitfinex halted trading for over three hours Thursday morning (Sept. 30), as it looked into “issues with the platform,” AMB Crypto reported.
Around two hours later, the exchange said it was almost done with the investigation, according to the report. The outage prompted fury from users, who asked questions online like, “How many times offline when the market is pumping?”
Bitfinex posted that everything was back online by around 10:20 Coordinated Universal Time, the report stated. It did not offer further details.