THE CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE IN GERMANY WENT TO THE BOTTOM

A financial and technological startup located in Germany has announced its liquidation. An organization specializing in crypto operations has failed to cope with the economic situation on the market. Attempts to attract additional funding also proved unsuccessful. As a result, the firm decided to start the closing procedure on November 30.

This was announced in an open letter on the exchange's website by the platform's CEO Kristina Volker-Mayer.

 

Prior to the start of liquidation, Nuri (formerly Bitwala) will continue trading crypto. The management suggests that customers using its services (there are more than 500 thousand of them) hurry up and withdraw their savings by December 18, 2022.

The company was founded in 2015. Over the years of its activity, the crypto exchange has attracted about €42.3 million. According to Crunchbase, the last serious capital inflow (closing of the Series B round) was observed in 2021. Then the firm managed to get €9 million.

In August 2022, the organization declared bankruptcy. The company's management explained this step by the instability of the market situation and global events. The management hoped that the bankruptcy procedure would allow to restructure assets and stabilize the financial condition of the business.

 

A direct factor in Nuri's bankruptcy was cooperation with Solarisbank. The partner took over the processing of fiat payments. In addition, the relevant banking licenses allowed the organization to store cryptocurrencies, securing the interests of its customers.

However, according to Nuri representatives, the insolvency of a business partner has become the main factor affecting the deterioration of the situation. The capital market collapsed along with the collapse of major players (Three Arrows Capital, Celsius, Terra) and marked the beginning of the crypto winter. Having originally emerged as a crypto exchange, Bitwala tried to rebrand itself by taking up digital banking and changing its name. However, the optimism of the management gradually disappeared, and investors did not come.