(Bloomberg) — Crypto exchange Bitstamp plans to charge a monthly “inactivity fee” for certain users, as the market downturn weighs on trading volume in the industry.
The charges, at 10 euros ($10.27) per month, will apply to accounts that haven’t traded, deposited, withdrawn or staked assets for a year with a total balance of less than 200 euros, starting Aug. 1, Bitstamp said in a company blog. Users in the US aren’t subject to the charges.
“Keeping inactive accounts on the books is a cost, and in order for us to continue providing great services to all our customers, we made the hard decision to implement the inactivity fee,” Bitstamp said in the blog. To avoid the charge, users can buy or sell crypto, make a deposit or withdrawal, or enroll in staking services — a way of earning rewards for holding certain cryptocurrencies, it said.
Crypto exchanges have been looking for ways to lessen their dependence on trading revenue, which tends to fall during prolonged market downturns. Coinbase Global Inc., the largest U.S. crypto exchange, has warned that trading volume in the second quarter will be lower than in the first. FTX US, the cryptocurrency exchange co-founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, recently expanded into equities trading, a way to diversify revenue sources while capturing a broader group of retail investors.
EToro, which offers both stocks and crypto trading, also has an inactivity fee, which applies to users with no login activity for 12 months, according to its website. Users can stop the charges as soon as they log in, it said.
Founded in 2011, Luxembourg-based Bitstamp is one of the oldest active crypto exchanges. Its trading volume in the past 24 hours was more than $173 million, according to data from Coingecko.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
