Over 45k Bitcoins Taken Away From BitMex Crypto Exchange

The US government has levied charges against BitMex co-founders for violating AML laws. This has resulted in the withdrawn of over 45,000 bitcoins. 

On 1st October there were two devastating blows brought for the derivatives crypto exchange BitMex. First was the charges against exchange brought from CFTC and DOJ. Soon the founders, including its CEO Arthur Hayes, were indicted by the U.S. government. This news brought a huge impact with a sharp decline across many of Blockchain’s biggest assets.

As per the data of Crystal Blockchain, within 48 hours the net outflows from BitMex have exceeded 45,000 Bitcoin. However, there are some exchanges such as Binance, Gemini, OKEx, and Huobi that are the biggest beneficiaries of these outflows. It was noticed that 20,000 BTC was transferred out of BitMex and into those four crypto exchanges. It is yet not clear whether BitMex will fail as an exchange or it will survive to trade another day. It seems that the most likely outcome for BitMex co-founders would be monetary penalties and a promise not to engage in unlawful activities in the future. 

As earlier reported, attorneys of Arthur Hayes have informed that the defendant intends to fight the allegations. Attorneys Peter Altman and Jim Benjamin of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP said, “together with his colleagues, Arthur Hayes worked hard to build an innovative, market-leading business in a cutting-edge sector of the economy.”According to the indictment, as of September 2018, there were “thousands of BitMEX users with United States location information that were enabled for crypto trading.