Maxine Ryan. Source: a video screenshot, Youtube, Real Vision Finance

Bitspark, a bankless money transfer solution utilizing blockchain technology, will be shutting down in a month, despite reporting positive results.

Hong Kong-based company will be closing its doors on March 4, 2020, announced CEO and Co-founder George Harrap. The startup’s Co-founder, Maxine Ryan, also shared the news to many unsuspecting followers on Twitter.

This is an unfortunate reality Bitspark has had to face. While this isn’t easy to say, as of 4th of March, Bitspark will no longer be operating and providing its services. These announcements, especially in the #crypto space, always causes distress. 1/ https://t.co/YX7g7sWq1n — Maxine Ryan (@MaxieRyan) February 3, 2020

Though the news might’ve been sudden to the followers and users, it seems that the situation has been developing towards this culmination of events for a while now. The announcement states that despite “an excellent performance” seen since the release of their Cash Point product in late 2019, which has seen a “great demand and 400% month-to-month growth” – “due to internal restructuring that hasn’t worked out, and a decision taken by shareholders internally,” the startup decided to shut down. They add that the Hong Kong protests and Coronavirus epidemic haven’t affected them much, but that “they haven’t helped the situation either.”

Ryan used her post to explain the situation further, saying that after six years of hard work and struggle, Bitspark hit their limit. A month ago, she says, she stepped down from her position as the Chief Operating Officer, resulting in the need to restructure the company, which ultimately led to the decision to close their doors. “While I hoped the company would continue especially due to the [month-on-month] growth,” writes Ryan, “it was determined that due to its inconstancy it wasn’t predictable enough to continue.”

No further details about the failed restructuring of the company were provided.

I have to respectfully accept this decision. This paired with the landscape of Hong Kong with protests and the coronavirus where Bitspark HQ is located. The team and shareholders decided this was the best way forward to prevent integrity decay of the company 5/ — Maxine Ryan (@MaxieRyan) February 3, 2020

The functionality will remain intact for the customers to withdraw their crypto until March 4, after which, account logins will be disabled for a period of 90 days.

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Bitspark was founded in 2014, and it launched its ZEPH Rewards Token ICO in 2017, raising USD 1.3 million worth of cryptocurrency, according to Trackico. Until now, they were working on creating stablecoins pegged to the world’s 180+ fiat currencies wanting to revolutionize cross-border money transfers, their website states. They have so far established support for EUR, AUD, SGD, CNY, PHP, HKD, USD, and GBP stablecoins.

Meanwhile, we shared previously an excerpt from The Compendium of Cryptocurrency Remittances by Harrap, discussing why crypto will not make Western Union obsolete.

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