Cryptocurrency exchanges must constantly evolve to remain competitive. This can be achieved in many different ways, even though not everyone will like how it’s done. In most cases, exchanges will add new currencies over time. Bittrex, on the other hand, is preparing to delist over 80 altcoins which have little to no demand or broken blockchains.
Bittrex Does Spring Cleaning
Like most other altcoin exchanges, Bittrex has a wide variety of currencies to choose from. Getting listed on this exchange is anything but easy, as the company processes every individual application manually. In a lot of cases, this means we see some lesser-known currencies “stuck” on smaller cryptocurrency exchanges for longer periods of time. As those currencies often bring nothing to the table, that is a normal development, all things considered.
Bittrex used to be one of the leading altcoin exchanges in the world. Especially after Poloniex started to suffer from massively degraded performance, Bittrex became the safe-haven for most altcoins. As such, the company has added several dozen currencies over the past few months, with varying degrees of success. It has since become apparent that a fair few of those coins need to go, as they either don’t generate sufficient trading volume or their blockchains are utterly broken. It seems the addition of so many coins is now backfiring a bit.
As a result, Bittrex will be removing 82 different altcoins from the exchange by March 30. They include a lot of currencies most people have never heard of, although there are a few surprising names on the list as well. The delisting of FC2, GEMZ, and METAL, among others, is a bit of a surprise, although it makes sense for the company. None of these markets are performing as expected, and thus removing them is the only logical option.
Moreover, this list includes a fair few altcoins which no longer have working blockchains. This means users will not be able to withdraw outstanding balances from Bittrex, as the blockchain is either too slow to process transactions or there are no network nodes left to receive and broadcast transfers. It is not an uncommon situation in the world of altcoins, as a lot of projects are abandoned within 6 months of being created. It will undoubtedly lead to more ERC20 tokens in the future, as the Ethereum network will always be around to move funds around.
The list contains 26 currencies suffering from some degree of blockchain issues. That is a staggering amount, which also makes one wonder whether or not the Bittrex team made the right call in adding them in the first place. The unpopular truth is that over 99% of altcoins will never serve any real purpose and shouldn’t even be listed on any exchanges in the first place. The list posted by Bittrex further confirms this sentiment.
Whether or not the company will face any backlash over this decision remains to be seen. Since most of these currencies have small communities, it seems unlikely any major repercussions will be experienced. At the same time, the potential withdrawal issues will certainly cause a stir on social media, even though there is very little the exchange can do in this regard. It’s an interesting development, though it’s one that will be positive in the long run.
