So news emerged today that Bitshares has been removed from Bittrex, the extremely popular crypto exchange.
Bittrex is important as it currently boasts more total volume than all but two exchanges. As predicted, a bloody sell-off of Bitshares has proceeded pretty quickly on Bittrex.
The move is concerning at first glance. However, a deeper look helps to explain things a little more.
One of Bitshares' big selling points is its decentralised exchange. From the Bitshares website:
"BitShares provides a high-performance decentralized exchange, with all the features you would expect in a trading platform. It can handle the trading volume of the NASDAQ, while settling orders the second you submit them. With this kind of performance on a decentralized exchange, who needs risky centralized exchanges?"
As an up-and-coming decentralized exchange, it makes sense that Bittrex could see Bitshares as a potential future competitor. Especially as Bittrex is a foremost centralized exchange.
Is this the real reason Bittrex removed Bitshares from their exchange?
The plot thickened slightly when this was posted on the Bitshares subreddit:
Now, it makes sense that if Bittrex was to remove Bitshares overnight with zero warning, then they'd need some kind of official "reason." It wouldn't be viewed as good form to just remove them as they're a potential competitor. So reasoning like this, on some level, makes sense.
If it's true that Bitshares developers are in touch with Bittrex staff and looking to sort out a potnetial tech issue with the exchange, then we could see a big jump up once news breaks that Bitshares is being re-listed. Or, at least, the de-listing tag is being removed.
So what's going to happen? It's too early to say. This could be a political move on the part of Bittrex that see a potential competitor and want them removed before they cause too many problems. In which case, I doubt we'll see it un-delisted anytime soon.
On the other hand, if it's a technical issue, like the above image seems to suggest, we could see a big move up by Bitshares once news breaks that it's being re-listed on Bittrex.
If we don't see Bitshares on Bittrex ever again, that's not the end of the story. There are plenty of other exchanges to trade Bitshares on, including Bitshares' own DEX.
As one recent poster mentioned, "Bittrex banning Bitshares is a little like the banks trying to ban Bitcoin!"
So what do you make of this news? Do you believe in the Bitshares project? Are you looking to hold through this most recent bump in the road? Or are you going to take your money and run?
Let us know in the comments below!