October was rather detrimental to BitMEX’s cryptocurrency exchange. The US regulators have charged and arrested the owners of BitMEX for illegally running the exchange. Apart from this, over the course of the case, the exchange even suffered acute losses. The Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Crypto Mom, Hester Peirce, commented on the same in a recent interview.
US Law Enforcement Taking Crypto Seriously?
Hester Peirce is rightfully called the Crypto Mom following her inclination towards cryptocurrencies. The Commissioner has been vocal about her stance on crypto as well as the regulators’ less progressive attitude towards cryptocurrency. While Peirce was recently elected to serve as the Commissioner of the SEC once again, the crypto community viewed this as a great boost for the industry.
Appearing in a recent interview with Laura Shin, Peirce revealed her opinion about the latest tiff between BitMEX and the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC]. Peirce believes that the US government was trying to put out a message. Elaborating on the same, the Commissioner said,
“Well, I think that the message has been coming to the industry fairly loud and clear on the AML, KYC front, and I’m sure it will continue. It’s a difficult area frankly for very traditional financial firms, as well, and I think that lots of firms run into trouble there, but I think that it’s definitely sending a message to the crypto world.”
Highlighting how the case was not under the purview of the SEC, Peirce suggested that her knowledge about the case was limited to what she read on the papers.
After being accused by the CFTC as well as the Department of Justice for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, BitMEX publicly denounced all the allegations. Following these charges, the exchange incurred an immense loss as a total of $243 million in BTC was withdrawn within one hour post the announcement. However, the exchange went on to change the management as all the three owners were charged. While Samuel Reed sought a way out of jail, he was mandated to appear before court whenever summoned.