Over 45,000 Bitcoin has been withdrawn from BitMex since the U.S. government levied charges against the exchange and its leadership. October 1 brought two devastating blows to BitMex. First, the CFTC and DOJ brought charges against the exchange. Shortly thereafter, its founders (including 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.
This isn’t the first time in recent months that BitMex has contributed to a downward turn. The exchange first began losing the trust of its participants following a blackout on Black Thursday which prevented users from trading or retrieving their assets. While users withdrew over 100,000 Bitcoin in the six months between that episode and these recent charges, the exodus of the past two days appears to be unprecedented in scale.
According to data from Crystal Blockchain, in less than 48 hours, the net outflows from the exchange 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 have been transferred out of BitMex and into the latter four 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. Lance Morginn, the CEO of Blockchain Intelligence Group and a former supervisory special agent at the Department of Homeland Security, told Cointelegraph that the most likely outcome would be monetary penalties and a promise on the part of BitMex’s executives not to engage in unlawful activities in the future.
