The United States Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is probing BitMEX, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, over suspicion of violation of regulations, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
The agency is looking if the exchange is offering its services in the United States, thus violating the laws of the jurisdiction. BitMEX has not taken any approval from the CFTC and is not allowed to provide derivatives trading services in the country.
According to the unnamed source of the publication, the watchdog agency is investigating into the derivatives platform for a month.
Breaking news
*U.S. REGULATOR PROBING CRYPTO EXCHANGE BITMEX ON CLIENT TRADES under investigation, just two weeks after that v Tangle in Taipei.
— Tim Culpan (@tculpan)
A mammoth in the crypto arena
Registered in Seychelles, BitMEX is , onboarding traders mostly from Asia. It offers leverage up to 100x for its futures contracts.
According to its website, the platform in the last 24 hours while the volume for the last 30 days touched $208.98 billion.
Though BitMEX officially does not provide any service in the US, its chief executive Arthur Hayes revealed in January that it is possible for traders based in the country to spoofing their location to trade derivatives.
In January, reports surfaced that based in the US and Canadian province of Quebec amid the tightening of regulatory proceedings.
Meanwhile, Nouriel Roubini, an economist and crypto critic recently attacked BitMEX, accusing the platform of its involvement in “systematic illegality.”
“We continue to monitor all legal and regulatory developments around the world and will comply with all applicable laws and regulations; we reject any allegations of criminality, manipulation or unfair treatment of our customers, who are at the center of everything we do,” Hayes recently told Bloomberg.
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