Romania is not a country most people would associate with Bitcoin or digital currency right away, but don’t be mistaken in thinking there is nothing going on over there. BitcoinXRomania is the only exchange platform in the country – other than LocalBitcoins – and is actively trying to establish a name for themselves in the near future. In fact, this Bitcoin exchange is open to people from all over the world.
Also read: Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 01/01/2016 – Major Battle at $433
BitcoinXRomania – Trustworthy Or Not?
Once someone opens up the BitcoinXRomania website, they will be greeted with a sleek looking design. Inviting colors are all fine and dandy, but it takes a lot more for people to trust a company they have never heard of with their money, either in fiat or digital currency. However, the user-friendly approach is a good start.
When visiting the company’s contact page, however, things seem to get a bit confusing. BitcoinXRomania is not even located in Romania itself, despite using that country’s name in the company title. A very strange decision, especially when considering headquarters are located in Berlin, Germany.
What makes matters even more interesting, is how the domain registrar lives neither in Romania nor Germany. The BitcoinXRomania domain is registered to a certain Andreas Zabari, who takes up residence in Monaco, of all places. When looking up Mr. Zabari on Linkedin, his profile states he lives in Bucharest, Romania. He did, however, study at the International University of Monaco.
Despite being around since June of 2015, BitcoinXRomania has not gotten that much media attention. In fact, the only coverage they received so far is getting their press release published on a handful of websites, which is a task nearly anyone can achieve these days at very little cost.
But that isn’t the worrying part yet. When looking at the markets and order books on BitcoinXRomania, there have been no transactions on the BTC/USD market since November 29, 2015. Furthermore, there have never been any orders placed on the BTC/RON market. This is of particular concern, considering how the Romanian New Leu is the local currency of the very market this Bitcoin exchange wants to corner.
Use At Your Own Risk
When it comes to Bitcoin exchanges, it is very odd to see BitcoinXRomania drawing in very few users over the past six months. There have also been little to no marketing efforts to spread the word about this exchange platform. It is difficult to judge whether this platform is legitimate or not, but there are plenty of warning signs to steer away from this company for the time being.
It is very well possible BitcoinXRomania is a perfectly legitimate Bitcoin exchange. However, if they really plan to target the Romanian market, and still have no transaction volume in the order books since June 2015, something is not adding up. For now, use BitcoinXRomania at your own risk, as things do not seem completely legitimate.
Update from the Founder of BitcoinXRomania
We have a received a response in regards to this article. The founder, Mr. Andreas Zabari explains the reasons for the registration in different countries and the confusion when it comes to the order book.
Regarding my person, yes I registered the domain in my name, because it started off as a personal project and I was waiting to see the reaction to it. I studied and lived in Monaco, however I have also lived in other countries. I have moved to Romania to establish the exchange locally and hopefully this year will mark its real start.
The address in Berlin was in case that someone wanted to send post, however I agree that a Romanian address is more appropriate, thats one of the reasons I moved here.
In fact the exchange is running on the infrastructure of Crypto Next https://www.cryptonext.net/ and is under Isle of Man regulation.
The order book stats are not exactly correct. If you go to https://cne.bitcoinxromania.com/markets.php?page=markets you will find all the information, however the confusion comes from the way it is presented, its not an aggregate of all currencies. For example to view the order book for a certain pair you have to select it at the top. If you select BTC/EUR the last transaction was 2016-01-03 09:12:33.
For BTC/USD 2015-11-29 22:59:21. BTC/RON has been almost non existent to my surprise, even though we offer it all transactions have been EUR or USD. The explanation to this is that a lot of individuals in Romania hold their accounts in EUR at the bank.
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Source: BitcoinXRomania
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