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Over 45,000 BTC withdrawn from BitMex since the U.S. government levied charges against co-founders.

Co-founders of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange have pled guilty to using their platform as a means of dodging U.S. money-l
Co-founders of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange have pled guilty to using their platform as a means of dodging U.S. money-laundering rules.

Since the U.S. government levied charges against the exchange and its leadership for violating anti-money laundering laws, over 45,000 BTC have been withdrawn from the exchange. October 1 brought two devastating blows to the derivatives crypto exchange BitMex. First, the CFTC and DOJ brought charges against the exchange. Shortly thereafter, its founders, including its CEO Arthur Hayes, were indicted by the U.S. government. The market reacted to the news with a sharp decline across many of Blockchain’s biggest assets.

Over 45,000 BTC withdrawn from BitMex in less than 48 hours.

According to data from Crystal Blockchain, in less than 48 hours, the net outflows from BitMex have exceeded 45,000 Bitcoin. Meanwhile, Gemini and Binance appear to be the biggest beneficiaries of these outflows, trailed by OKEx and Huobi. Over 20,000 BTC has been transferred out of BitMex and into those four crypto exchanges. It is unclear whether BitMex will disappear into the abyss of time like many failed exchanges before it, or if the company will survive to trade another day. It is speculated 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.

Co-founders plan to fight back the charges.

As reported earlier, attorneys of Arthur Hayes have informed that the defendant intends to fight the allegations. “Together with his colleagues, Arthur Hayes worked hard to build an innovative, market-leading business in a cutting-edge sector of the economy,” attorneys Peter Altman and Jim Benjamin of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP said. Attorneys for Mr. Dwyer said he would also contest the charges. 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.

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