Users have transferred around USD 500 million worth of BTC off the exchange. Other exchanges such as Binance and Gemini also record massive withdrawals.
There have been withdrawals for more than 37,000 BTC (equivalent to USD 500 million) from the BitMEX exchange in just a few hours. Before that, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) accused the exchange of violating anti-money laundering regulations and offering illegal trading services.
According to data from CoinMetrics, the exact number of bitcoins that users have transferred to other addresses off BitMEX reaches 37,772 BTC. Taking into account the current price of the main cryptocurrency, which is around USD 10,500, the analysis firm shown a multi-million dollar amount.
CoinMetrics recently posted on Twitter that “there have been withdrawals of over 37,000 BTC from BitMEX since the CFTC’s announcement, while Binance and Gemini together have received over one-third of the withdrawals.” The number of BTC withdrawals on Binance reaches 6,475, while on Gemini it is 6,235. In other words, they both add up to one-third of the number of withdrawals on BitMEX. After CoinMetrics published its message, the figure went up another 10,000 BTC.
In another message, CoinMetrics also noted that what happened with BitMEX left a record in terms of withdrawals in BTC. This is the biggest negative change that the exchange has shown regarding its balance in the main cryptocurrency.
According to data estimates from Glassnode, BitMEX kept around 170,000 BTC in its wallets, close to 1% of the total amount of BTC in circulation. Concerning the 47,000 BTC that users withdrew, the amount would represent 28% of the total amount of bitcoins in their wallets.
On its Twitter account, CoinMetrics added that “that is the highest hourly outflow from BitMEX that we have seen so far.”
There was also an influence on the price of Bitcoin as a consequence of the CFTC’s decision on BitMEX. The first cryptocurrency exhibited a drop of close to 4% on September 2nd, compared to its price the day before when it was around USD 10,900.
What happened with the exchange created a stir within the Bitcoin ecosystem. In addition to the CFTC’s decision, the Department of Justice charged its co-founders and the head of business development with violating the bank secrecy law.
Samuel Reed, one of the co-founders, is under arrest and is due to appear in court soon. The two agencies have also accused the CEO of the company, Arthur Hayes; the other co-founder, Ben Delo; and the Head of Business Development, Greg Dwyer.
Given the seriousness of the situation, CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert noted that exchanges that break the law cannot gain an advantage over those that do comply with the rules.
Users have also made strong withdrawals from the following exchanges: OKEx (2,609 BTC), Bitstamp (785 BTC), Deribit (675 BTC), Kraken (645 BTC), and Huboi (513 BTC). From the above, it is possible to conclude that Bitcoin users always try to leave exchanges that they cannot trust.
By Alexander Salazar
