The "Crypto Crackdown" in the US continues as the SEC has officially levied charges on the decentralized video sharing site LBRY. Not only has the SEC placed charges on LBRY, but the Bittrex exchange has announced that that it will soon stop supporting LBC as a trading pair. Both of these announcements have put the price of LBC into an absolute freefall and many people are worried about the future price of LBC. In this post, I'll discuss the consequences of the SEC charges, the decision of Bittrex to delist LBC, and show you how to remove your LBC and cash out to fiat to protect your earnings.
Double Whammy For LBC
Let's start with the big news. On 29 March, the SEC announced that it would be charging LBRY with conducting an unregistered offering of digital asset securities. The complaint alleges that LBRY was in error from a period of at least July 2016 to February 2021. Not only does the SEC believe that LBRY was in error, it also seeks, "permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement plus prejudgment interest, and civil penalties." I'm no lawyer, but those seem like some serious pretty charges an might put LBRY in a pretty difficult spot.
Although I heard about this announcement a few days ago, I wasn't worried and was considering simply holding my LBC until the announcement yesterday that Bittrex was going to delist its LBC trading pairs on April 16, 2021. Even if LBRY wins the lawsuit, the fact that I can't trade LBC on Bitrex severely limits utility as well as profitability. As we have seen with other coins, being delisted from a major exchange usually comes with HUGE price volatility, and I wanted to consider cashing out LBC as soon as possible to protect my earnings.
Racing the Clock
The price of LBC has been in free-fall for the past hour or so as people have been rushing to cash out and protect their earnings, and I felt like I was writing this article in a race against time. Unfortunately, Bittrex currently is making users wait 400 confirmations before they can access their funds on the exchange. Given a block time of around 2.5 minutes, that means it could take up to 16 hours for you to be able to trade your funds.
Summary
As I sit here waiting for my deposit to be confirmed, I can only hope that the price of LBC doesn't go lower. Unfortunately, all I can do is wait and hope for the best, and I'm not really sure what I will do. Had I been able to trade as soon as I made my withdrawal, I probably would have cashed out. On the other hand LBC is falling so fast that it might not even be worthwhile to cash out 15 hours from now when my deposit finally is confirmed. At that point, I might just "hold what I have" and hope that the price rebounds at some point. As a content creator, I'm also worried because LBRY has been a significant source of my crypto earnings, and I know that it has helped a lot of others as well. Hopefully this litigation is resolved in a way that allows LBRY to continue functioning and helping creators earn, but we will have to wait and see.
NOTE: Instead of withdrawing LBC from one video at a time, check out this article by Scott Cunningham that shows you how to do a "mass withdrawal" that can save you precious time.
As always, nothing in the article is financial advice.
Thanks for reading
References
https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2021/lr25060.htm
https://bittrex.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058775712-LBC-Market-Removal-April-16-2021
https://bittrex.com/balance
https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/lbry-credits
https://www.publish0x.com/howtolbry/how-to-revoke-all-supports-on-lbry-windows-xyvymvn
Image Credits
https://www.reddit.com/r/lbry/comments/gp4gh6/upgraded_lbry_logo_in_png_format_feel_free_to_use/
