In order to cover costs as the crypto market pulls down on trade volumes, Bitstamp is charging inactive clients a charge.
The company stated in a blog post on Friday that the new inactivity charge will apply to users who haven’t traded, deposited, or bet on its platform within the last 12 months and had balances under $200. Such users would be assessed an inactivity cost of 10 euros.
It will not apply to users in the US and is scheduled to take effect on August 1.
“The majority of Bitstamp’s customers are not affected by the Inactivity Fee,” Bitstamp said. “Nobody loves fees (we don’t either!) but keeping inactive accounts on the books is a cost, and in order for us to continue providing great services to all our customers, we made the hard decision to implement the Inactivity Fee.”
Bitstamp active users needn’t worry
The majority of exchanges get their revenue through fees on trading volumes, which have fallen sharply along with the price of cryptocurrencies since the year’s beginning. The Block data reveals that trade volume has decreased, from $2.2 trillion in May 2021 to about $622 billion in June.
In order to diversify their company, cryptocurrency exchanges are attempting to increase their income base, which has historically been mainly dependent on trading fees.
For instance, Coinbase has been piloting Coinbase One, a new subscription service, whereas other platforms like Kraken have included staking. The massive layoffs also indicate the cost-cutting method by exchanges to stabilize their revenue amidst the bear market.