Bottle Pay, a cryptocurrency payment service startup, announced on December 13th that it will be ceasing its operations from the 31st of December onwards, in a blog post.
The company explains that the reason for deciding to end all activities of the company by stating that since it is a UK-based Bitcoin wallet provider, accordingly it will have to comply with the 5AMLD EU regulation (the Fifth Money Laundering Directive) that will be implemented from 10th January of next year henceforth.
Bottle Pay further elaborates that it would have to collect extra personal information from its users that will affect the user experience negatively. Hence, they decided to shut the company down in order to maintain their integrity as providers and guard the interest of users and investors instead of subjecting them to these FATF-based regulations.
In the blog post, Bottle Pay shares that new sign ups and deposits to the service’s Bitcoin wallets will go offline during the time of the announcement, December 13th. The company’s bots on social media platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, Telegram and Discord have been switched off and the funds that were sent through them will be returned to the benefactors within a week.
The company also adds that the withdrawal function will be ceased, and the wallets will be officially closed on December 31st. The funds from the accounts that would not be withdrawn within the given deadline will be donated to The Human Rights Foundation.
Steps for Users to Terminate their Crypto Actions with the Company
Bottle Pay advised users to remain calm as they still hold the option to withdraw their funds before December 31st. It further adds that to avoid unnecessary hassles, users should follow a series of laid out steps. Firstly, they should remove payment page links from their social media profiles. Secondly, they should uninstall the browser extension of Bottle Pay and then withdraw funds and transfer them to another crypto wallet. It also suggests that users reach out to Bottle Pay support for any technical difficulties they might face through the process.
The company allocated a section about the future of the company in the blog post while stating that the decision to close the startup was difficult for them but necessary to protect the integrity of Bottle Pay and the cryptocurrency community. Furthermore, they will be deciding the future of the company and if anything comes up, they will make announcements through public platforms at a suitable time.
The company concluded the blog post by thanking and appreciating the users and the investors who were actively participating through the journey of Bottle Pay.
