People don’t see what we’re dealing with behind the scenes.

As a chairman of the United Bitcoin companies the Netherlands (VBNL) a lot is happening. In the last few months we had serious issues with the bank that facilitates most on/off ramping for exchanges in the Netherlands.

In January a large part of the bitcoin exchanges received a cost increase from €499,- to €4999,- per month for their bank account. In April they received a letter that the companies had until 10th of June to move their funds and operation to another bank. The bank accounts were going to be closed down.

The issue is that many exchanges have built extensive API’s for smooth on/off ramping with this bank. So this was a move that caused a lot of stress for many people. Communication with the bank was impossible. So every individual company took them to court. Only one case was actually brought into the court room and the company won. The other companies received a message they could hold their bank account.

The insane cost increase is still there and creeping further through the list of bitcoin companies.

We’re now looking at a way to reduce the cost, because for small companies it means bankruptcy.

This we do as companies together. And VBNL has been doing this for over a decade now.

For now it’s a bank, and on 10th of September we’re facing an even larger cost issue. The Dutch central bank. We won the court case with 11 exchanges but off course they appealed and now we’ll be standing at the Supreme Court. The central bank has burdened the exchanges with millions of regulatory oversight cost that were not lawful. A win during this court case would not only drop the cost for the exchanges between 2020-2024 but most likely also impact future cost under MICAR and the Authority of financial Markets. We’re currently looking at a €5.6 million cost from just AFM for the ongoing regulatory oversight for MICAR in 2025. Wish us luck.

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