As leading US exchanges bow out due to regulatory pressure, DEXs step into the breach

The exodus of Poloniex, whose US operations are now winding down, is the latest in a long line of centralized exchanges to have bowed out citing regulatory pressure.

Every cloud has its silver lining no matter how slender, and the sunsetting of US CEXs has provided an opportunity for DEXs to gain market share.

With Poloniex on its way out of North America and Bittrex a shadow of its former self, US residents aren't left with many trading venues where they can freely operate.

Coinbase is more of a broker than an exchange, Kraken is still Kraken: ideologically as true to Bitcoin as ever, but suffering from low liquidity and unable to innovate due to restrictive US legislation.

US has the trading volumes, but not the coins, since each asset it lists must be carefully vetted to ensure it's not a security and is "Sufficiently decentralized."

US traders seeking exposure to the full gamut of crypto assets are now left with two options: fire up the VPN to access an overseas CEX and hope they don't get caught, or investigate the world of DEXs instead. From a legal perspective, decentralized exchanges are bound by the same laws as their centralized counterparts in the US, unless, that is, the DEX is "Sufficiently decentralized" so as to have no formal company structure.

Not centralized exchange deep, admittedly, but better than any other DEXs out there.

Bancor and Uniswap aren't the only Ethereum DEXs out there; in fact, there are numerous decentralized exchanges that offer a trading experience not too dissimilar to that of centralized platforms.

It would be hopelessly optimistic to think that DEXs will simply soak up the US trading demand left by departing CEXs, and that business will go on as usual, but in a non-custodial fashion, beyond the reach of regulators.

If nothing else DEXs are capable of serving as exchanges of last resort: a lifeline for US traders to fall back on, providing surety of access to an array of crypto assets.