On 16th April, the Purse.io released an official announcement of its shutdown. The online P2P marketplace enabled Bitcoiners to shop and use BTC/BCH to receive discounts on Amazon and even allowed earning BTC/BCH by selling Amazon gift cards to its customers.
The company stated how it will no longer be taking in any new user logins. As of 16th April 2020, all new user signups have been disabled. The ‘Shop’ and ‘Earn’ functions will be stopped on April 23rd, 2020 and all operations will be ceased on 26th June 2020.
Purse released no official reason stating why it had to dissolve its firm and shut down its operations. Which is why Redditors and Twitteratis have flooded with their speculations.
Purse.io is one of the oldest companies in the crypto/blockchain industry and entered the space when Bitcoin was at $400. The company has had a good reputation over all that has come and gone after the 2017 bull run.
What’re people saying? Speculations.
A Redditor named Elum224 commented on a Purse.io shut down post saying, “AMLR5 (new Anti-money regulations) came into force in January this year”. He stated, that banks and businesses complying with these regulations “means lots of crypto businesses will close. I’ve noticed that Amazon gift vouchers are no longer sold in shops either! I’m pretty sure it’s AMLR5. purse.io holds crypto funds. AMLR5 requires that crypto custodians KYC’s their users.”
Back in 2016 news Y Combinator had a discussion running around Purse.io. A user said that purse was “a website for committing fraud with stolen credit cards”. “It’s a website that specializes in letting criminals convert credit card details (PAN/CVV/expiry) into bitcoin while exposing them to minimal risk. There are very real ways to commit such fraud”, he added.
Another user said,
“This was literally one of the only ways to launder bitcoin into something as good as cash, anonymously. The people doing the buying using Amazon credit are acquiring those funds fraudulently. Surprised it took this long.”
The founder of Bitcoin Cash, Roger Ver was an early investor of purse.io nevertheless after BCH halving and its prices tanking the advocate has made no comments on the shut down either.
Additionally, a Twitterati pointed out how Ver was promoting Purse.io on the BCH owned BTC forum on Reddit.