A crypto exchange IDEX which allows traders to exchange Ethereum tokens has announced its plans to block users from New York. The new decision will be effected tomorrow (Oct.25). That means traders with IP addresses originating from New York won’t be in a position to trade Ethereum tokens on the platform.
The exchange’s decision to ban traders from NYC has triggered outrage in the crypto community. It’s a common practice for crypto exchanges to blacklist certain jurisdictions. NYC is frequently blacklisted due to its stringent cryptocurrency regulations.
It is surprising that a decentralized exchange pays so much attention to the wishes of NYC regulators, especially since IDEX doesn’t support security tokens, fiat-to-crypto pairs, or other instruments that could be of interest to regulators.
Seemingly, users from New York can still access the platform via VPN to hide their actual IP addresses. Even so, it is unknown whether the platform will block Ethereum addresses that had earlier been associated with IP addresses from blacklisted jurisdictions.
To decentralized currencies proponents, IDEX’s decision to blacklist users from a certain region is simply the latest indication of the foundation of cryptocurrency being slowly eroded. Some exchanges block crypto deposits that have passed through coin mixers. Also, there are some Japan-based exchanges that do not list privacy coins. Binance has also hired blockchain forensic startup that has been working closely with police to track criminals hiding behind cryptocurrencies.
IDEX is one of the world’s popular decentralized exchanges that let users to trade ERC-20 tokens with ease. It is presumably the largest decentralized cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume.
Users can use the platform with Ledger Nano S and MetaMask like wallets to enhance their security whilst using the platform.
Since major cryptocurrency exchanges are prone to hacks, a number of exchanges including Binance, Huobi and OKEx have announced plans to migrate to decentralized IDEX-like platforms.