Beaxy exchange closed by SEC

[Rikafip]

As the title says, another exchange has been closed and this time its Beaxy. I can't say I heard about them before but allegedly they have been around since 2017 and are (were) based in the Unites States. If anyone has any money there, you have 30 days to withdraw it says SEC.

Crypto trading platform Beaxy has officially closed its doors as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the company and its founder, Artak Hamazaspyan. with operating an unregistered exchange and brokerage, the agency said Wednesday in a statement.

The SEC also accused Beaxy Digital Ltd. of illegally raising $8 million in the offering of an unregistered security with its BXY token. The agency additionally noted Hamazaspyan “misappropriated at least $900,000 for personal use, including gambling.”

Windy Inc. took over the platform in 2019 after the founder misappropriated money, according to the SEC, and managers Nicholas Murphy and Randolph Bay Abbott maintained Beaxy for trading crypto assets “that were offered and sold as securities,” the SEC said. So the agency is also accusing them of violating securities law by operating an unregistered exchange, broker and clearing agency, though the platform was described as defunct in another SEC case last year.

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[Z-tight]

Thank you for the info, so the people who use that exchange can save their money. There are so many charges and accusations against this exchange, but the one that gets my attention the most is this:

The agency additionally noted Hamazaspyan “misappropriated at least $900,000 for personal use, including gambling.”

How these owners of centralized exchanges and services gamble with their customers money is so frightening. For people who read all of these news and still use centralized exchanges as their main custody for BTC, i don't know what they are still thinking, is it until someone, possibly one hiding in cayman island gambles away their money that they would learn.

[JeromeTash]

As the title says, another exchange has been closed and this time its Beaxy. I can't say I heard about them before but allegedly they have been around since 2017 and are (were) based in the Unites States.

The name rings a bell. I think I have seen their name pop up in the scam accusations before

They have an ANN which is from Feb 2018 - [ANN] Beaxy - The All-in-One Cryptocurrency Exchange and the domain was registered around 2017-08-24, so it's likely they started operating around that time

Quite an amateur move to operate a crypto exchange in the US without getting it registered with SEC. It's like he wasn't seeing how the likes of Kucoin, Binance were playing hide and seek with the regulators.
 

[Darker45]

As the title says, another exchange has been closed and this time its Beaxy. I can't say I heard about them before but allegedly they have been around since 2017 and are (were) based in the Unites States.

The name rings a bell. I think I have seen their name pop up in the scam accusations before

They have an ANN which is from Feb 2018 - [ANN] Beaxy - The All-in-One Cryptocurrency Exchange and the domain was registered around 2017-08-24, so it's likely they started operating around that time

Quite an amateur move to operate a crypto exchange in the US without getting it registered with SEC. It's like he wasn't seeing how the likes of Kucoin, Binance were playing hide and seek with the regulators.

It indeed rings a bell. This exchange was promoted here through a signature campaign. I even thought this was a promising exchange back then. This exchange was strongly promoted outside of this forum as well. If I'm not mistaken, they even imitated the early strategy of Binance by giving away a Lamborghini. I cannot remember exactly how things have turned awry but it was indeed accused of being a scam.

It's surprising they didn't do something with their lack of registration despite them certainly noticing how regulators are tightening their policies on crypto exchanges. It seems they're just sitting by waiting for their time.

[Rikafip]

For people who read all of these news and still use centralized exchanges as their main custody for BTC, i don't know what they are still thinking, is it until someone, possibly one hiding in cayman island gambles away their money that they would learn.

If fall of MtGox and FTX didn't teach anyone anything, so won't fall of a small and unknown exchange like Beaxy. I know some people that lost money in FTX and Celsius and they are still storing large amount of money on Binance so what else to say. At least in Beaxy case people will have time to actually withdraw their money (or at least that's what they say).

If I'm not mistaken, they even imitated the early strategy of Binance by giving away a Lamborghini. I cannot remember exactly how things have turned awry but it was indeed accused of being a scam.

Binance was giving away Lamborghini? Lol I didn't know that. Those marketing "techniques" are usually reserved for the worst possible ponzi scams.

[stompix]

So, the SEC closes down an exchange accused of fraud and misappropriation of funds and looking at their front page, what do they say:

Regrettably, we are announcing the immediate suspension of services on Beaxy Exchange. Due to the uncertain regulatory environment surrounding our business, we have made the difficult decision to cease operations.

Not only it was their "difficult" decision that they have taken themselves but it was the uncertain regulatory environment that caused this, not the fact that they spawned companies to hide their transactions, not the fact they never bothered to register with the SEC, not that they ignored everything to date, not a word on anything else.

Binance was giving away Lamborghini? Lol I didn't know that. Those marketing "techniques" are usually reserved for the worst possible ponzi scams.

Freebitco.in has been doing this for years, I don't even remember when they first started but they do have one raffle each year at least (??)

[PX-Z]

If remember correctly, well, if im not wrong, this is one of the exchange promoted by @cryptanzee on twitter with its famous memes. Besides that, i never seen them anywhere except the fact and realizing that they have their own ANN thread here linked above lol.
Well, they are a bit of lucky, they were only got noticed this year or so, operating without license or without regulatory docs for many years.


Edit: Confirmed its them, after searching on twitter.

[albon]

I think it is an unknown exchange platform, and it is good that the SEC cleared the market from it. What I heard is that the new managers of the Beaxy platform are the ones who caused it to be shut down by the SEC because they violated the securities law; in addition to that, the founder of Beaxy is a scammer and has done illegal acts of embezzlement and gambling with users money and the other reason, as explained by @PX-Z, is that Beaxy has worked for years without a license and registration as an exchange or broker. Fortunately, there are 30 days for users to withdraw their funds from this suspended platform. I hope the community does not blindly trust the centralized exchange platforms or the platforms that are somewhat unpopular in the market because they are not devoid of problems and losses.

[JeromeTash]

So, the SEC closes down an exchange accused of fraud and misappropriation of funds and looking at their front page, what do they say:

Regrettably, we are announcing the immediate suspension of services on Beaxy Exchange. Due to the uncertain regulatory environment surrounding our business, we have made the difficult decision to cease operations.

Not only it was their "difficult" decision that they have taken themselves but it was the uncertain regulatory environment that caused this, not the fact that they spawned companies to hide their transactions, not the fact they never bothered to register with the SEC, not that they ignored everything to date, not a word on anything else.

Can a thief freely admit that they have been thieves and stealing from people?  

Obviously not!
We saw a classic example with the SBF, FTX and Alameda research saga. The kept lying to us to very last minute.

[Darker45]

If I'm not mistaken, they even imitated the early strategy of Binance by giving away a Lamborghini. I cannot remember exactly how things have turned awry but it was indeed accused of being a scam.

Binance was giving away Lamborghini? Lol I didn't know that. Those marketing "techniques" are usually reserved for the worst possible ponzi scams.

Yeah, they did that. It wasn't the most classy move, of course, but Binance wasn't the first crypto exchange that did that. As a matter of fact, if my memory serves me right, Binance also took that idea from another CEx. I cannot remember which crypto exchange did the same prior to Binance. But I remember reading an interview of CZ around that time attributing that giveaway idea to one of his staff.

There was also a time when KuCoin did a Lambo giveaway. Today, where have all the Lambos gone?

[uray]

~
Binance was giving away Lamborghini? Lol I didn't know that. Those marketing "techniques" are usually reserved for the worst possible ponzi scams.

The first year they launched they wanted to attract users and they announced to gave away a 2018 Lamborghini Huracan RWD Coupe but have no idea whether anyone won the Lambo as i could not find that announcement from them regarding the winners.

Here is the announcement from Binance regarding the Lambo giveaway Lamborghini Giveaway
So another one bites the dust.

[JeromeTash]

The first year they launched they wanted to attract users and they announced to gave away a 2018 Lamborghini Huracan RWD Coupe but have no idea whether anyone won the Lambo as i could not find that announcement from them regarding the winners.

Here is the announcement from Binance regarding the Lambo giveaway Lamborghini Giveaway

I have tried to search all over and haven't seen any post or article announcing the winners as well. Maybe it was just a stupid marketing gimmick or they just canceled the whole competitions.

It wasn't favorable for the small traders anyway, as the winner was going to be picked based on accumulated trading volume. By the time someone can make huge trading volumes, this means they can afford the lambo as well.

[Lucius]

~snip~
Freebitco.in has been doing this for years, I don't even remember when they first started but they do have one raffle each year at least (??)

A few days ago, the lucky winner was drawn in round 8, and each round lasts 180 days, which means that the first Lambo was awarded 4 years ago. Although it should be noted that Lambo is only option 1, while each winner can also choose a cash prize of $200 000, which will of course be paid in Bitcoin.