Australian Exchange BTC.com.au Shuts Down Amid Market Volatility

The Australian-based crypto exchange BTC.com.au has announced it will be closing down by the end of this week, citing crashes in both the stock market and crypto market as the primary cause. 

As you have all likely seen and heard in the media this week, there have been multiple market crashes in both the crypto and stock markets, and sadly we have been very hard hit in this volatile climate and it is not possible for us to continue operating.

BTC.com.au statement

BTC.com.au says however it will keep its service alive until Friday, July 22 – giving users just over a month to prepare for its closure.

BTC.com.au Started Small, Had Recently Expanded Heavily

BTC.com.au started out in 2018 offering just a single cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC). In the past year, as the crypto market boomed, the exchange expanded significantly, increasing its employee count five-fold.

In April this year, BTC.com.au announced the launch of its new full-fledged trading platform, adding support for several new cryptocurrencies and numerous other features.

Crypto Crash Puts Pressure on Exchanges

According to data from CoinGecko, since its peak last November the overall crypto market cap has plummeted close to 70 percent – falling from over US$2.9 trillion to under US$1 trillion. Many individual cryptocurrencies have seen even bigger declines, dropping 80-90 percent from recent highs. 

This degree of volatility can easily decimate heavily crypto-exposed businesses; unfortunately for BTC.com.au, the crypto winter hit immediately following its rapid expansion when it seems to have been particularly vulnerable.