Last week, one of Europe’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, Bitstamp announced an inactivity fee of €10 that was to take effect from the 1st of August 2022. The rationale behind these fees was to cover the costs of cryptocurrency transactions as the crypto winter continues to force a downtrend in cryptomarket volumes.

The company had stated in a blog post that the new inactivity service charge would apply only to their platform users who have not bet, traded, or deposited on the platform in the past 12 months with their balances over $200.

Those users were to be debited an inactivity charge of €10. It was however not to apply to users of the platform in the United States and the new charge was to take effect from 1st August 2022.

The announcement was met with very heavy disapproval by users on social media as Bitstamp was the recipient of immense backlash over what many users termed as greed and/or a will to make money off customers in the ongoing crypto winter.

Many Bitstamp users took to social media to voice their outrage over the inactivity service fee and a lot of them frankly said that the new inactivity fee would just motivate them to move all their crypto holdings to more cooperative exchanges. Some of the more angered users tweeted that they would go as far as deleting their Bitstamp accounts even after moving their crypto assets to other exchanges.

Following the heavy displeasure that was shown by the announcement, Bitstamp tweeted on Wednesday 6th July 2022 that they have canceled the implementation of the inactivity fee.

The tweet also said that the company has taken this recourse in the light of the many people who spoke up against the charge. CEO J. B. Graftieaux said in a statement that after hearing the responses from their customers, they have taken everyone’s concerns on board and have chosen to cancel the charge. He also said that listening to customers is part of the Bitstamp DNA.

Featured image source: The Crypto Times