Bitstamp to Charge Inactive Fee to Make Up for Costs

Inactive users of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp platform will have to pay a fee to make up for costs, according to a report from The Block.

Bitstamp is taking this action as the crypto market is weighing on trading value and the new inactivity fee will impact customers with balances below $200 for the last 12 months, according to the company's blog post.

The inactivity fee is set at 10 euros and will go into effect on August 1. Traders must trade, deposit, or stake on Bitstamp's platform to avoid the fee.

However, the company said that the fee is not applicable to US users, and active users would not be charged regardless of their balance.

"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."

According to The Block, most exchanges earn their revenue from charging fees on trading volumes. However, those fees have dropped abruptly alongside the price of cryptos since the beginning of the year. The Block shared data that showed that volumes across exchanges have declined from $2.2 trillion in May 2021 to approximately $622 billion in June.