Crypto Firm Nexo leaves U.S. Over Unclear Regulations

Against the backdrop of several developments in the crypto space, crypto lending platform Nexo has decided to leave the United States over unclear regulations, stating that it will no longer accept new registrations and operations for new customers will be ended soon. 

Today we are announcing the regrettable but necessary decision that Nexo will be phasing out its products and services in the United States due to a lack of regulatory clarity. 🧵

— Nexo (@Nexo) December 5, 2022

Nexo is a leading crypto borrowing and lending platform that has been in the United States for a long period of time. The firm disclosed on Nov. 5 that its new decision is regrettable but inevitable. 

However, the firm revealed that it has been in a dialogue with the U.S. regulators for more than 18 months in order to ensure compliance with the U.S. financial laws, but it appears things are falling apart. 

Nexo stated that the months-long talks between the company and U.S. officials have not yielded the desired results. As a result, the only viable option is to leave the country as there was no pathway for enabling blockchain businesses. 

The firm added that it has off-boarded customers from New York and Vermont. In the same vein, new registrations for the platform’s Earn Interest product in the U.S. has been discontinued. 

It is noteworthy that current customers in eight other states in the U.S. will not have access to their Earn Interest product starting from Dec. 6, 2022. Meanwhile, customers from other states will still have access to the Earn Interest Product for now. 

Regulations on Crypto Industry

More than any other time, countries are exploring ways of tightening crypto regulation following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. 

It is noteworthy that the U.S. lawmakers are pushing to strengthen the power of regulators in order to monitor crypto exchanges. Already, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has proposed a bill to charge crypto companies for regulating them.

In the same vein, the United Kingdom parliament on Dec. 5 proposed a crypto bill under the financial services and markets department in order to embolden the power of the country’s financial regulator and put crypto space under tighter monitoring.