CFTC Charges BitMEX

[SquallLeonhart]

I think it makes sense and also doesn't at the same time. It makes sense because we are talking about certain laws in USA and that is why they should be followed and if you do not follow those laws you are going to end up indicted and you are going to jail, this is the obvious part and there is no question about that.

However at the same time there are laws that charges the company when company does something and punishes the company with money to pay, instead of individual who works there or owns it, just recently JP Morgan did an illegal thing and paid a billion, it wasn't the CEO that got charged, so bitmex not getting the same treatment is peculiar. Specially coming from New York famous for recognizing bitcoin before many states and nations but making it almost impossible to own it at the same time while being legal.

[Tytanowy Janusz]

Not really sure if they can't operate, but there's a huge dump in the last 24 hours, meaning traders are withdrawing because they are afraid about the future of BitMex. And if this happens, for sure it will be hard for them to operate, so it's either;

(1) temporarily halt their operation until this is over
(2) continue to operate but the risk for traders is going to be huge

The question is, which exchanges are the next target of CFTC?

It looks to me that none of those points make sense. Losing some customers is the case for bitmext but it does not affect other customers that decided to stay (despite lover volume that it is huge even now - top 3 even after incident). Trading will continue normally. US may want to attack but for good reason Bitmex is not even registered in US. To make things clear. I think that company registered in Seychelles providing services for whole world will not shout down only because US has problem that Bitmex did not ban US users that wanted to use their service. It will end up with few mln $ penalty at max.

BTW Can you imagine this shit from other country - not US? A small vilige in Africa creates a law that it's citizens can't use facebook, few of them used facebook, so Mark Zuckerberg is going to jain. What a nonsense.

[el kaka22]

I find it quite unfair that the CEO and his team gets jailed for this, I understand punishment which makes no sense at all neither but considering you are hurting the finances of the people who bribe politicians, it is totally understandable that you would be indicted but to makes no sense to jail them at all.

Even mafia boss' do not get this type of jail time anymore, they just get money penalty and pay a fine and maybe do some public service and they get out of it, no reason why it should also have some sort of jail at all. I hope that crypto big companies get together and they start to bribe politicians as well, if wall street can do that to make themselves untouchable no matter what they do, I am sure the crypto companies can get together and pay these politicians to sway them pro-bitcoin as well.

[South Park]

I find it quite unfair that the CEO and his team gets jailed for this, I understand punishment which makes no sense at all neither but considering you are hurting the finances of the people who bribe politicians, it is totally understandable that you would be indicted but to makes no sense to jail them at all.

Even mafia boss' do not get this type of jail time anymore, they just get money penalty and pay a fine and maybe do some public service and they get out of it, no reason why it should also have some sort of jail at all. I hope that crypto big companies get together and they start to bribe politicians as well, if wall street can do that to make themselves untouchable no matter what they do, I am sure the crypto companies can get together and pay these politicians to sway them pro-bitcoin as well.

In theory justice should be blind and unbiased but we know that is just an ideal and it does not work like that, the bankers and people on Wall Street can get away almost with anything because they have all of those politicians on their pockets, but I do not know how possible this is for the owners of exchanges, because even if they have the money to try to pull off something like that we must remember that the market of cryptocurrencies goes against the best interests of both bankers and politicians so I do not think there is money enough to try to convince them to not go after them.

[luckyflop]

Founders Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed have stepped back from all executive management responsibilities for their respective CEO and CTO roles with immediate effect. With fellow Founder Ben Delo, they will not hold executive positions in the 100x Group. Additionally, Greg Dwyer will take a leave of absence from his role as Head of Business Development. 

https://blog.bitmex.com/leadership-changes-at-100x-group/

[luckyflop]

Btc Pumped today!
The absence of BitMEX means the next bull market will be significantly less manipulated (and healthier).Hopefully, the next manager is less nasty and doesn't cause that crazy flip-flop movement, I don't do leverage trading but I guess it should be safer these days!

Hold on to your butts.

[btc_angela]

Not really sure if they can't operate, but there's a huge dump in the last 24 hours, meaning traders are withdrawing because they are afraid about the future of BitMex. And if this happens, for sure it will be hard for them to operate, so it's either;

(1) temporarily halt their operation until this is over
(2) continue to operate but the risk for traders is going to be huge

The question is, which exchanges are the next target of CFTC?

It looks to me that none of those points make sense. Losing some customers is the case for bitmext but it does not affect other customers that decided to stay (despite lover volume that it is huge even now - top 3 even after incident). Trading will continue normally. US may want to attack but for good reason Bitmex is not even registered in US. To make things clear. I think that company registered in Seychelles providing services for whole world will not shout down only because US has problem that Bitmex did not ban US users that wanted to use their service. It will end up with few mln $ penalty at max.

I guess if you stay then there could be less volumes and it could affect your trading experience? So if you are a customer, might be better to move to others exchanges with liquidity. Oh well, that's US long arm of the law, regardless of where you are, or what country you hide, they might find a way to get to you.

BTW Can you imagine this shit from other country - not US? A small vilige in Africa creates a law that it's citizens can't use facebook, few of them used facebook, so Mark Zuckerberg is going to jain. What a nonsense.

I agree, it's nonsense but it can happen let say if you live on a authoritarian regime.

[Tytanowy Janusz]

I guess if you stay then there could be less volumes and it could affect your trading experience? So if you are a customer, might be better to move to others exchanges with liquidity. Oh well, that's US long arm of the law, regardless of where you are, or what country you hide, they might find a way to get to you.

According to CMC there is still $1.5 bil volume. Its top 4. I doubt that anyone with wallet smaller than $ 100 mln  will see the difference. There is 0.5% slippage for $1 mln market order. Biggest derivatives exchange is only 2 times bigger.

[alicea]

I don't think it will affect much even if they are found to be guilty. It is a known fact that BitMex occasionally trades against the users, and still, they have a huge volume of trades. Even this news didn't affect the trade volume much.

[Princejebs]

Btc Pumped today!
The absence of BitMEX means the next bull market will be significantly less manipulated (and healthier).Hopefully, the next manager is less nasty and doesn't cause that crazy flip-flop movement, I don't do leverage trading but I guess it should be safer these days!

Hold on to your butts.

I am more than bullish on Bitcoin but your reason isn't the cause of this mini pump. That's because of the recent Jack Dorsey’s Square purchases $50 million worth of Bitcoin, institutional investors are given merchants, retailers more courage to buy more bitcoin, any other aspect is hype and shill by YouTube influencers and Twitter big whales.
Its a good thing they made a big decision by change of leadership, regulations bodies will be watching the new CEO how active and things will be put in place but the truth is, this market can be manipulated any time with or without there consent.

[RealMalatesta]

I would say the best idea would be halt the operations, whatever trade is open right now let them be there, but do not allow any more new actions and that way you are making sure that there is no more new people coming in and there is no more new trades being made from old users neither, let this situation pass first and tell everyone that you are ready to let them withdraw as much as they want as well.

After that when you are done, for like maybe 6 months of no operations and everyone leaving and only handful still there because they are just not even there, they could restart everyone from scratch with a whole new design and all to make it all forgotten. Or they could simply continue this way and just pay people their money but it is uncertain what will happen to them so this is much riskier.

[South Park]

I don't think it will affect much even if they are found to be guilty. It is a known fact that BitMex occasionally trades against the users, and still, they have a huge volume of trades. Even this news didn't affect the trade volume much.

Those accusations are huge and if true it could be enough for the authorities not only to go against the people at the top but against the whole business as well, as it is obvious that such thing must be illegal as an exchange should be impartial and just provide a platform in which traders can trade against each other, if the exchange takes action on their own platform they have an unfair advantage over the rest of the traders since they have information they do not and if they use that privileged information then they could be accused of a crime.

[maryanti]

It is a pity, Bitmex's largest market with the highest volume, must end in violation of US regulations.
Various violations committed by Bitmex caused a number of Bitcoin markets to experience price drops.

This will have an impact on Bitmex itself if the exchange continues its bourse operations, because the safety and comfort of members are already under threat. And they won't believe anymore.

[casperBGD]

It is a pity, Bitmex's largest market with the highest volume, must end in violation of US regulations.
Various violations committed by Bitmex caused a number of Bitcoin markets to experience price drops.

This will have an impact on Bitmex itself if the exchange continues its bourse operations, because the safety and comfort of members are already under threat. And they won't believe anymore.

it is not a pity, it is a necessary change of regulation, for BTC to have mass adoption, legislation is needed, if the community wants Bitcoin ETF to be approved, and institutional investors in the game, and then BTC price should reflect much more participants in the process, and more money involved, which are bullish signs
there is no room for exchanges that are not in line with regulations, because they would eventually scam their customers and void any responsibility

[beerlover]

There are financial crimes and there are financial crimes, when you pay your due to USA government you are not going to get affected by it that much, it is going to be something like "hey don't forget our pay in this" and that's it, all those big bankers have lobby companies working for them to pay the bribes to politicians to make them legit, Bitmex probably doesn't have that, that is the difference. You may think that bankers do not go to jail but these are not bankers, these are people who went against bankers so it is highly possible that they could actually get crushed in the court room.

I say do not be worried about them, they deserved what they got, if they do something illegal they should be going to jail just like everyone else, just because some bankers don't doesn't mean these guys shouldn't neither, if anything those bankers should too.

[Zazzu]

Seems like this story is going on, first it was Bitmex then Okex then who knows?
The sickness of greed and the benefit of untrackable cryptocurrencies to avoid tax, Every time such a thing happens affect on cryptocurrencies credits, recently PayPal has added some crypto into its gateway and hopefully, it can clear those fuds!