Bitlish Crypto Exchange Review: What Happened and Why It Shut Down

The crypto world moves fast. Exchanges rise, explode in popularity, and then vanish - often without warning. Bitlish was one of them. Launched in the early 2010s, it carved out a niche by making it easy to buy crypto with real money - euros, pounds, rubles, yen, and dollars. For a while, it felt like a solid option: clean interface, low fees, and support for 13 cryptocurrencies. But by March 30, 2020, it was gone. No announcement. No refund. Just silence. If you're looking at Bitlish today because you heard it was "great" or "transparent," here’s the truth: it doesn’t exist anymore. And understanding why it failed could save you from similar traps.

What Bitlish Actually Offered

Bitlish wasn’t trying to be Binance. It didn’t list hundreds of coins or offer leverage trading. Instead, it focused on one thing: helping people turn fiat into crypto. That made it stand out in a crowded field. While most exchanges made you buy Bitcoin first and then trade it for other coins, Bitlish let you deposit euros and instantly buy Ethereum, Litecoin, or Monero - all directly. It even traded every fiat currency against USDT, which was unusual at the time.

Its fee structure was one of its biggest selling points. Market makers - people placing limit orders that added liquidity - paid zero fees. Market takers - those who bought or sold immediately at market price - paid just 0.5%. That was far lower than competitors like Kraken or Coinbase, which often charged 0.75% or more. Corporate clients could even negotiate lower rates. For small traders, this was a big deal.

It supported five fiat currencies: EUR, GBP, RUB, JPY, and USD. That meant users from Europe, Russia, and even Japan could deposit and withdraw without currency conversion headaches. Payment methods were wide: Visa, Mastercard, Skrill, Neteller, bank transfers via SEPA and SWIFT, and over 30 other options. Card deposits had unusually low fees, which drew in many users who were tired of high bank charges elsewhere.

Security and Infrastructure

Bitlish wasn’t reckless with security. It used SSL encryption, two-factor authentication, and 24/7 fraud monitoring. Crypto funds were stored in offline cold wallets. Fiat money sat in segregated bank accounts - not mixed with company funds. That’s the kind of setup you’d expect from a serious exchange.

Its API was fast. CryptoCompare measured average response times at 198 milliseconds - on par with Poloniex and bitFlyer. It used WebSocket connections built on the Asyncio module, a modern choice that kept trading smooth. It also had mobile apps for iOS and Android, which most exchanges of its size didn’t bother with.

Customer support operated 24/7 in 14 languages. That’s rare for an exchange that wasn’t a global giant. And the interface? Simple. No clutter. Easy to navigate. For beginners, it was one of the better experiences out there.

The Limits That Held It Back

But here’s where Bitlish started to crack.

It only supported 13 cryptocurrencies: BTC, ETH, USDT, DASH, LTC, XMR, XRP, ZEC, BCH, BTG, XDG, IOTA, and HBZ. NEM was delisted in 2019. Compare that to Binance, which listed over 500 coins by 2020. Bitlish didn’t have the liquidity to support newer or lesser-known tokens. If you wanted to trade something obscure, you had to go elsewhere.

It didn’t offer margin trading or futures. That ruled out serious traders looking to amplify returns. It also didn’t have deep order books. CryptoCompare’s 2019 data showed Bitlish’s order book depth for most pairs was 20-30% lower than Kraken’s. That meant slippage - you’d pay more than expected when buying large amounts.

And then there was geography. Bitlish banned users from 19 countries, including the U.S., China, Iran, and North Korea. That wasn’t unusual - many exchanges avoid U.S. regulation. But it also meant a huge portion of the global crypto market was off-limits. Its user base never grew beyond 50,000 active accounts. That’s tiny compared to even mid-tier exchanges.

Why It Failed: The Real Reasons

Bitlish didn’t get hacked. It didn’t get shut down by regulators. It just… faded.

The biggest reason? Low volume. Even though its fees were low and its interface clean, not enough people used it. Without volume, liquidity dried up. Without liquidity, traders left. Without traders, revenue dropped. It became a death spiral.

It also couldn’t raise funding. CoinDesk’s 2021 post-mortem pointed to its failure to secure Series A funding during the 2019-2020 market downturn. Investors saw a platform with solid tech but no path to scale. It was too small to compete with giants, too limited to attract niche users.

Some users reported withdrawal delays in the months before shutdown. Bitcointalk threads from May 2021 - months after it was already dead - still contained claims of funds being held. That suggests support had collapsed long before the official shutdown. One user wrote: “They’re polite when taking your money, cruel when you ask for it back.”

Even its high TrustScore of 4.8/5 from Cryptogeek in 2025 feels misleading. That rating was based on just four reviews - likely from users who had left before the crash. The negative sentiment on other platforms tells a different story.

What Happened After Shutdown?

Cryptowisser officially marked Bitlish as “dead” on March 30, 2020. Its website went silent. No updates. No contact info. No explanation. No refund process. That’s the worst-case scenario for any crypto platform.

There were rumors it was developing a crypto debit card - but it never launched. No successor took over its user base. No team reappeared. It just vanished.

Today, Bitlish is used as a case study in academic papers like the University of Cambridge’s 2022 report “Why Cryptocurrency Exchanges Fail.” It’s cited as an example of a technically competent platform that failed because it couldn’t scale beyond a narrow regional niche.

What You Should Learn From Bitlish

Bitlish wasn’t a scam. It had good tech, low fees, and a clean UI. But it had no plan for growth. No backup funding. No way to handle user trust when things went wrong.

If you’re choosing a crypto exchange today, ask yourself: Is this platform alive? Are they still updating? Do they have real volume? Can you reach support? Are they regulated in a major jurisdiction?

Don’t be fooled by old reviews. Don’t trust a 4.8/5 rating based on four users. Look for current activity. Check forums. See if people are still depositing. If a platform hasn’t posted an update in years, it’s already gone.

Bitlish’s story isn’t about a bad product. It’s about a product that didn’t evolve. And in crypto, if you don’t evolve - you die.

Frequently Asked Questions