Prominent cryptocurrency exchange, BitMEX recently fell under the purview of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] of the United States. The financial regulator reportedly charged the owners of BitMEX for illegally running the crypto derivatives platform.
BitMEX Strikes Back
BitMEX has been one of the notable exchanges in the crypto industry. However, the latest news could pose as a huge setback for the exchange. In a recent release, the CFTC alleged that BitMEX was an unregistered platform and had violated several regulations put forth by the CFTC including the embodiment of anti-money laundering procedures. Along with CFTC, the owners of BitMEX, Ben Delo, Arthur Hayes as well as Samuel Reed were also charged by the Department of Justice for violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
The announcement pointed out that the aforementioned trio was carrying out illegal leveraging services, futures, options, swaps on digital assets like Bitcoin [BTC], Ether [ETH], and other prominent cryptocurrencies since November 2014. The financial regulator further revealed that the exchange had garnered more than $1 billion worth of fees since 2014.
Soon after the CFTC charged the exchange with the case, BitMEX shared a press release to assure its users that it wasn’t in troubled waters. BitMEX went on to denounce the CFTC’s charges and suggested that the platform would continue to defend the accusations. The exchange affirmed that the latest news wouldn’t have an impact on the operations of the exchange. However, an off-cycle withdrawal would be processed at 8:00 UTC as well as 13:00 UTC on 2 October 2020.
The announcement further read,
“We strongly disagree with the U.S. government’s heavy-handed decision to bring these charges, and intend to defend the allegations vigorously. From our early days as a start-up, we have always sought to comply with applicable U.S. laws, as those laws were understood at the time and based on available guidance.”
BitMEX Faces Acute Losses
Despite its attempts to eliminate commotion in the crypto community, BitMEX failed to retain its users. Several online analytics platforms highlighted how the exchange was subject to huge losses since the CFTC and DOJ charges. Glassnode Studio reported that a total of 40,000 BTC was withdrawn from the exchange. The platform shared the same on Twitter,
While Bitcoin has been trading for $10,532.50, the aforementioned number of Bitcoins withdrawn from the exchange amounted up to a whopping $420 million. BitMEX went on to break several other records in terms of outflows. Glassnode also highlighted that a total of $243 million in BTC was withdrawn within a course of just one hour, making it the largest to date.
Additionally, the XBTUSD open interest had also taken a hit on the exchange. Prominent data analytics platform, Skew pointed out that the open interest was down by 20% since the news of the charges surfaced the internet.
CFTC’s latest allegations have already begun taking a toll on the cryptocurrency exchange. The prolongation of this withdrawal spree could further cause a tremendous loss for BitMEX.