Eqonex Limited (EQOS), a Nasdaq-listed financial services firm, closed its crypto exchange on Monday, according to an announcement on the company's website.
The exchange, which launched in 2020, will close trading at 08:00 AM UTC on Aug. 22, with customers having until Sept. 14 to withdraw their funds.
The closure of the exchange will "improve the company's financial position" and allow Eqonex to focus on its asset management business as well as its custody business, Digivault, which last year became the first crypto custody firm to gain regulatory approval from the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
“As a young and maturing financial services business, our resource allocation needed to change to reflect the current market conditions and the opportunities that we are best placed to capture," Eqonex CEO Jonathan Farnell told CoinDesk via email. "We are exiting underperforming businesses that no longer fit within our future strategy to focus on areas that will accelerate our growth.”
“The recent extreme market volatility and declining trading volumes have added to the headwinds being felt by exchange operators," Farnell noted in a statement.
Farnell was appointed as Eqonex CEO in March after a stint as Binance's head of U.K. operations.
In March, Eqonex entered a partnership with Binance-owned fiat-to-crypto payments provider Bitfinity, with Bitfinity providing a $36 million loan that can be converted into equity.
Eqonex's exchange is one of many crypto businesses that have succumbed to market pressures this year, with rival exchange Zipmex forced to halt withdrawals after a $48 million loan to Babel Finance soured, while crypto lenders Celsius and Voyager both filed for bankruptcy.
Eqonex shares initially fell almost 7% following Monday's open, but were recently trading down 3% at $0.7743.
