There might well be risks with KYC, and it could be dangerous and useless, but none of that matters if the government is requiring an exchange to enforce KYC procedures. I don't think BitMEX was just itching to spring this on all of their customers.
Also, this is a typical crypto news site article that's poorly written:
Bitcoin futures exchange BitMEX will require its users to verify their identity by February 12, 2021
Bitcoin futures exchange BitMEX will start requiring all users to prove their real world identity on the exchange by August 28 2020.
Not that mainstream journalism is much better, but don't any of these sites do
any proofreading before publishing articles?
you really think bitmex can retain its volume and liquidity levels with mandatory KYC? i don't really believe that, especially given their perpetually sub-par trading engine performance. so many people already hate bitmex so much.
Eh, probably they'll have a drop in volume but I wouldn't expect it to be too drastic. It isn't like there are many no-KYC exchange options out there that BitMEX customers can migrate to.