Estonia-based crypto exchange Coinmetro has stopped onboarding, trading, deposits and withdrawals as it prepares to ask an Estonian court for reorganization after blaming a failure at an unnamed financial service provider.
The exchange said in a Tuesday blog post, June 30, that it had suspended new customer registrations, deposits and withdrawal requests from existing customers since June 22 because of an "extraordinary situation" caused by one of its financial service providers, without naming them.
The company also disabled trading, saying the move was needed to avoid "adverse consequences" for customers, Coinmetro and third parties.
Coinmetro
- But the move isn't the same as a standard bankruptcy filing, at least based on the company's wording.
- Under Estonian law, reorganization is meant to help a company overcome economic difficulties, restore liquidity and continue operating if sustainable management is still likely.
- If a court decides the company is permanently insolvent, however, the process can move toward bankruptcy.
If the court opens the process, the company said the plan would help manage the remaining value of its technology and intellectual property in the interests of existing customers.
Coinmetro repeated in Tuesday's statement that its MiCA application with the Malta Financial Services Authority is still under review.
- Founded in Tallinn in 2018 by Kevin Murcko, Coinmetro has long pitched itself as a regulation-first crypto exchange. Its terms say Coinmetro holds an Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit license for virtual currency services.
- In 2018, Coinmetro said its native XCM token sale raised just over €12 million after selling more than 120 million tokens to more than 7,000 contributors.
- Although Coinmetro wasn't a top-tier exchange, it wasn't tiny either as a 2023 company deck claimed 280,000 email-verified clients, €1 billion in 12-month trading volume, €185 million in assets under management and €73 million in staked crypto.
- In 2021, the exchange announced that a bond sale raised €2.5 million and that it had secured more than €2 million in private equity sales. In 2022, it said a 6 million XCM raise sold out in 48 hours at a €180 million valuation, giving buyers exposure to 2% of company equity.