U.S. Residents Identified Among BitMEX Traders

Several successful traders on the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX have ties to the United States. The evidence comes from a document provided to ForkLog by BMA LLC, the plaintiff in one of the lawsuits against the exchange.

Earlier BMA LLC accused BitMEX of fraud, money laundering and unfair business practices. According to the plaintiff, the platform allowed US residents to trade futures without registering as a commodities exchange.

The latest assertion is supported by a table of top traders in sample #6: four US residents from New York and California are highlighted in red.

The document also provides evidence of the traders’ American residency. For example, Roger Xu is the co-founder of Leotank Capital, based in New York.

CMC Exhibit 19a by ForkLog on Scribd

The plaintiff contends that it was the information in the document that prompted BitMEX to tighten its verification program in August this year.

As reported, since August 28 the exchange requires users to provide a residence address and identity documents.

Yesterday, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the U.S. Department of Justice charged the exchange’s owners with operating an unregistered trading platform and violating CFTC rules.

The regulators’ claims led to a decline in BitMEX’s open interest, below the yearly low. Within a few hours the indicator fell to 61,869 BTC.

From the exchange, 37 thousand BTC have already been withdrawn. Most of it migrated to Binance and Gemini.

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