Bittrex to take USD fiat deposits: Bill Shihara
Bittrex CEO says the exchange plans to start taking fiat USD deposits, potentially helping to open the wider altcoin market.
Bittrex CEO Bill Shihara said the exchange will soon be accepting USD fiat deposits, according to Cryptosumer, quoting Shihara on a radio appearance.
Bittrex is one of the world's larger exchanges, and its accepting fiat deposits might significantly change the trading landscape.
There are few exchanges which accept USD fiat deposits, and if Bittrex joins their number it might become a popular entry point for new traders, and potentially help decentralise the cryptocurrency market away from crypto-crypto trades.
The bulk of Bittrex trades are currently done with BTC, ETH and USDT pairs, according to Cryptocoincharts, but accepting fiat currency might eliminate the need to go through those before buying.
It might also help insulate the market from potential troubles caused by Tether (USDT).
It might also help deliver more variety in other ways. Currently, Coinbase and Gemini are among the few other exchanges to accept USD fiat deposits. But their coin offerings are relatively slim compared to Bittrex and confined to only a handful of the top coins, with the bulk of their trading typically being bitcoin and Ethereum.
Bittrex accepting fiat deposits might specifically serve to open up the broader cryptocurrency market to relative newcomers.
"People have been speculating for months that these major exchanges would start offering other coins, and these rumours have been used to pump the prices of coins that, in the end, have yet to be picked up by either one." Cryptosumer writes. "We may now see the effect of such rumours diminished."
"We can expect that based on this news, GDAX/Coinbase and Gemini will likely accelerate their plans to include more coins and trading pairs."
That doesn't mean it will be easy for new coins to get on the exchanges though.
According to Shihara, Bittrex considers factors including the experience of the project team, legal compliance and innovativeness when deciding whether to add a new cryptocurrency.
"It’s suspicious to us if you’re three guys who worked as a coffee shop and suddenly you’re building a token that wants to compete with Ethereum with smart contracts," he said.
Bittrex, like Binance and many other exchanges, maintains stringent criteria for accepting new coins.
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