IP addresses form new york and washington are banned on several bitcoin exchanges

Leo weese a hong kong based bitcoin researcher and analysis has revealed that IP addresses from new york and washington are banned on certain bitcoin exchanges and trading platforms .

Both small scale and major bitcoin service providers have censored IP addresses from the two states due to their impractical regulations and policies regarding bitcoin businesses and cryptocurrency investment . as of now bitfinex the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by trading volume bitmex shapeshift kraken poloniex vaultoro and paxful amongst other businesses do not offer services to users based on the two states as well as north korea .

Through plaease protect consumers.org the abovementioned bitcoin platforms have clarified that they intend to not operate in the two states until regulations on user surveillance and anti money laundering AML policies are improved in the future .

It is important to provide minimal regulations on user surveillance and data extraction because with out regulated platforms users and investors in the states of washington and new york will inevitably migrate to unregulated over the counter OTC markets and peer to peer platforms that are more difficult for the government to preventy money laundering and other criminal financial activities .

As a result of inefficient and impractical regulations bitfinex was forced to shut down its entire platform for us customers in october .

previously the office of the comptroller of the currency within the u.s. department of treasury revealed the governments long term strategy of introducing a national licensing program for bitcoin exchanges and cryptocurrency businesses to provide on unified set of laws . an efficient set of regulations is urgently needed in states that require additional policies for cryptocurrency businesses to comply with .