BitMEX User Notice: Actively Promoting KYC, Unverified Users Will Not Be Able to Withdraw Funds Starting December 4th
According to previous reports, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a statement on October 2nd, Taiwan time, accusing the Bitcoin derivatives exchange BitMEX of illegally operating an unregistered trading platform and violating anti-money laundering laws. Co-founder Samuel Reed has been arrested, while CEO Arthur Hayes, another co-founder Ben Delo, and Head of Business Development Greg Dwyer face the same charges. BitMEX's parent company, 100x Group, announced on the 8th that Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed will completely withdraw from the management team, with others no longer involved in the business.
One of the key tasks for the new management team is to complete the user verification program.
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Phase-Wise Blocking of Unverified Users
BitMEX appears to be actively requesting users to complete KYC to eliminate concerns about violating anti-money laundering regulations. According to an announcement on the 21st, users must complete verification by 8 a.m. on November 5, 2020 (Taiwan time) to continue opening positions. Those who remain unverified by 8 a.m. on December 4, 2020, will be unable to withdraw funds from the exchange.
If users remain unverified with open positions after December 4th, BitMEX will proactively contact them to facilitate closing the positions.
Since the introduction of the KYC program, BitMEX states that over 50% of users accounting for trading volumes have completed KYC, giving them confidence in meeting the deadline.
BitMEX Losing Its Leading Position
In February this year, in the feature "Introduction to the Top Five Contract Exchanges," BitMEX, which had long dominated the contract market, is now competing with OKEx and Huobi for trading volume leadership. Binance, which had just launched its contract products at the time, had less than half the trading volume of the top three.
Eight months later, with Binance, OKEx, and Huobi actively introducing contract products for various cryptocurrencies, the trading volume leadership has shifted to Binance. Based on the trading volume in the last 24 hours before the deadline, the order of trading volume is Binance, Huobi, OKEx, BitMEX, FTX.
