Bitsdaq Crypto Exchange Review: What Happened and Why It’s Dead

Bitsdaq was once promoted as a serious player in the Asian crypto trading scene, promising low fees, strong security, and deep liquidity through a partnership with Bittrex. But as of 2025, the exchange is gone - its website unreachable, its customer service silent, and its native token BQQQ trading with almost no volume on obscure platforms. If you’re wondering whether Bitsdaq is still live or if you can still trade there, the answer is simple: Bitsdaq is dead.

What Was Bitsdaq?

Bitsdaq launched in 2018 as a crypto-only exchange focused on the Asian market. It offered around 300 trading pairs, including major coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and lesser-known altcoins. Unlike most exchanges, it didn’t support fiat deposits. You couldn’t buy crypto with a credit card or bank transfer. You had to get your coins from another exchange first - like Binance or Kraken - and then move them over to Bitsdaq to trade.

Its biggest selling point was the fee structure. Every trade, whether you were placing a limit order (maker) or filling someone else’s order (taker), cost exactly 0.10%. That was half the industry average at the time, which usually sat around 0.25%. For active traders, that added up to real savings.

Bitsdaq also claimed top-tier security. It split wallet keys across multiple encrypted locations, used CloudFlare to block DDoS attacks, and defended against common web exploits like XSS and CSRF. But its most talked-about feature was its technical partnership with Bittrex. The two exchanges shared order books, meaning Bitsdaq users could access the same liquidity as Bittrex’s deep market. That was rare for a smaller exchange and gave it credibility early on.

The BQQQ Token and IEO

Bitsdaq had its own token: BQQQ (also called BQ). It was launched through an Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) in 2018, raising $6.5 million USD by selling 11.8% of the total supply. The full market cap at launch hit $55 million USD.

BQQQ wasn’t just a speculative asset. It had real use cases on the platform:

• Discounted trading fees (down to 0.08%) if you paid in BQQQ
• Priority access to new IEOs on the Bitsdaq platform
• Used for voting on new coin listings

At the time, that made BQQQ more valuable than many other exchange tokens. But there was a red flag. Nearly 50% of the tokens sold during the IEO went to private investors at huge discounts. Over 95% of all BQQQ tokens were held by insiders or early backers. That meant the public had very little control over the token’s supply - a setup that made many analysts nervous.

Why Did Bitsdaq Fail?

Bitsdaq had solid tech and a smart fee model. So why did it vanish?

The biggest problem was scale. While it partnered with Bittrex for liquidity, it never attracted enough users to build its own trading volume. Most traders preferred Binance, Huobi, or KuCoin - platforms with bigger user bases, more coins, and fiat on-ramps. Bitsdaq’s crypto-only model was a barrier for beginners. If you didn’t already own crypto, you couldn’t start trading there. That locked out the vast majority of new users.

Also, the crypto exchange market became brutally competitive. By 2020, even mid-sized exchanges were being bought out or forced to shut down. Binance, by then, was handling over $10 billion in daily volume. Bitsdaq’s $55 million token valuation looked tiny in comparison. Huobi Token (HT) was worth $160 million. KuCoin Shares (KCS) hit $100 million. Bitsdaq just couldn’t keep up.

The partnership with Bittrex, once seen as a strength, became a double-edged sword. Users expected Bitsdaq to offer unique coins or better prices. But since it shared order books, it didn’t have its own liquidity - it was just a mirror of Bittrex. Why use Bitsdaq when you could trade the same coins directly on Bittrex with lower withdrawal fees and fiat support?

By 2023, user activity dropped sharply. Customer support became slow. Updates stopped. The website began to load slowly, then inconsistently. By late 2024, it was completely offline.

What Happened to BQQQ?

Even after Bitsdaq shut down, BQQQ didn’t disappear. It still trades on a few tiny exchanges like CoinTiger and P2PB2B. As of November 2025, its price hovers around $0.005004. Some websites still show price predictions - like a 57% jump to $0.007869 by the end of 2024 - but those are meaningless now. There’s no exchange to trade on, no team to develop the token, and no real demand.

The token’s 30-day chart shows 100% green days - not because it’s booming, but because there are so few trades that even a single buy order can push the price up. Zero volatility? That’s just a sign of no market activity.

BQQQ is effectively a zombie token. It exists on paper, but it has no function, no utility, and no future.

Lessons from Bitsdaq’s Collapse

Bitsdaq’s story isn’t unique. Many crypto exchanges have died over the past five years. But it offers clear lessons:

• Tokenomics matter: If insiders hold 95% of your token, you’re not building a community - you’re building a pump-and-dump.
• Fiat on-ramps are non-negotiable: If you don’t let people buy crypto with a bank card, you’re cutting off 80% of potential users.
• Partnerships aren’t magic: Sharing liquidity with Bittrex didn’t make Bitsdaq better - it made it redundant.
• Security alone isn’t enough: You can have the most secure wallet system in the world, but if users don’t trust you or can’t use you easily, they’ll leave.

Bitsdaq had the right ideas on paper. Low fees? Check. Strong security? Check. Strategic partnership? Check. But it failed to solve the real problem: how to attract and keep real users in a market dominated by giants.

Is There Any Way to Recover Funds or Tokens?

No. Bitsdaq’s website is offline. Its servers are shut down. Its team has vanished. There’s no customer support email, no Twitter account, no Telegram group - nothing.

If you held BQQQ on Bitsdaq, you lost it. If you had other cryptocurrencies on the exchange, they’re gone too. There’s no recovery process. No legal avenue. No regulator stepping in. This is what happens when a small exchange dies without a wind-down plan.

Alternatives to Bitsdaq

If you’re looking for a reliable exchange with low fees and strong security, here are three solid options still operating in 2025:

• Binance: The largest exchange by volume. Offers over 600 trading pairs, fiat deposits, and a 0.1% trading fee (lower if you use BNB).
• Kraken: Known for security and compliance. Offers fiat on-ramps, staking, and a 0.16% maker/taker fee structure.
• Bybit: Popular for derivatives and spot trading. Zero fees on spot trades for the first $10,000 monthly volume.

All three have active customer support, clear terms of service, and verified track records. None of them have vanished overnight.

Final Verdict

Bitsdaq was a well-designed exchange that failed to scale. It offered good technology and smart fee structures, but it never solved the core problem: how to attract everyday users. Its crypto-only model, lack of fiat support, and reliance on a partner exchange doomed it. The BQQQ token, once promising, is now a ghost.

If you’re considering any crypto exchange today, ask yourself: Can I deposit fiat? Is there real trading volume? Is the team transparent? If the answer to any of those is no, walk away. Bitsdaq’s collapse is a textbook case of what happens when a platform builds for engineers - not users.