Binance, Gemini, Kraken So Far the Winners From BitMEX's Legal Woes

Oct 2, 2020 at 20:15 UTCUpdated Oct 2, 2020 at 20:44 UTC.U.S. regulatory authorities on Thursday brought a series of civil and criminal charges against BitMEX. Since then more than 41,000 bitcoin were withdrawn from the Seychelles-based crypto exchange.

Where did it go, triggering a brief market sell-off? Data shows much of it went to competitors Binance, Gemini and Kraken.

As of Oct. 2 01:00 UTC, 11,257 BTC moved from BitMEX to these exchanges: 4,786 BTC to Binance, 3,899 to Gemini and 989 to Kraken, according to data provided by CryptoQuant.

BitMEX's bitcoin outflow to these exchanges could show traders are putting a higher priority on better compliance with regulations or better-leveraged bitcoin trading products.

Gemini, the U.S.-based and Winklevoss brothers-owned exchange is known for strict "Know-your-customer" procedures.

Binance, the leading crypto exchange by spot trading volume, has surpassed BitMEX, becoming the No.1 crypto exchange in 24-hour bitcoin futures trading volume.

San Francisco-based crypto exchange Kraken is the first cryptocurrency firm in the U.S. to become a bank, after its application for a special purpose depository institution charter was approved by regulators on the Wyoming Banking Board.

Failure to implement proper KYC rules is among the charges against BitMEX by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Once the leading crypto derivatives exchange, BitMEX's market share has waned, with many other venues offering a variety of bitcoin derivatives trading instruments.