IBEX Pay, a payments company based on Bitcoin's Lightning Network, has announced its withdrawal from the US market. Starting May 31, 2024, the company's Bitcoin payment services will no longer be available in the United States.
This decision comes against an increasingly difficult backdrop for cryptocurrency businesses in the United States. This new event adds to an already long list of facts showing the desire of the American authorities to oppose any initiative aimed at preserving privacy in the crypto-currency sector:
- Closure of the Samourai Wallet and arrest of its creators.
- Closure of the AgoraDesk service
- Sentence confirmed to 5 years in prison for Tornado Cash programmer.
- Termination of US operations of Bitcoin wallet Wasabi and wallet provider Phoenix Bitcoin Wallet.
IBEX Pay offered users a quick and easy way to make Bitcoin payments via Lightning Network. The company also offered business services, such as payment solutions and gateways.
On May 15, 2024, IBEX Pay announced the suspension of its services in the United States. The company's Bitcoin payment services will therefore no longer be available in the United States:
After careful consideration, it has been decided that effective May 31, 2024, all IBEX Pay services in the United States will be suspended.
A difficult environment for IBEX Pay
This situation can be partly explained by the current economic and geopolitical context. The status of the US dollar as a global store of value is increasingly being called into question, while new threats of bank failures loom on the horizon. Faced with this uncertainty, American regulators seem more inclined to adopt a restrictive approach towards the use of cryptocurrencies that are not subject to supervision on their part. This is seen as a potential threat to the traditional financial system.
Faced with this uncertainty, many companies fear that their activities could be declared illegal overnight. By closing or relocating their business, they hope to avoid potentially costly legal battles. Other countries, such as Switzerland or El Salvador, have put in place regulatory frameworks that are more flexible and more favorable to innovation in the field of cryptocurrencies.
And all these events can encourage users to turn to solutions guaranteeing them real autonomy, such as LNBits or BTCPay.
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