Panic Withdrawals From BitMEX Post News About CTFC Investigation

The Commodity Futures and Trading Commission has decided to investigate the popular cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, which has been accused of illegally offering trading services to U.S citizens.

Ever since this news has been doing its rounds in the market, the exchange has witnessed massive panic withdrawals bu users, who do not feel their crypto assets will be safe with the exchange any further.

According to TokenAnalyst, a firm that analyzes inflows and outflows of major exchanges, BitMEX has witnessed around $85 million in withdrawals after the news of the investigation hit the market. Notably, this is the highest withdrawal count ever in the past 24 hours.

We could compare this figure to $54 million withdrawn from Binance and $52 million withdrawn from Bitstamp in the past, and we will realize that the BitMEX number is way high than either of them.

However, while Binance and Bitstamp also saw significant deposits made during that period, BitMEX only saw $12 million deposited into the exchange. This is a major cause for concern for the exchange, since their business will take a huge hit if users choose not to safekeep their assets with the exchange anymore.

The more people who will withdraw, the more the market sentiment around BitMEX will keep going south, triggering further withdrawals. At this rate, if customers don’ stop their withdrawals soon, the exchange might soon have to be shut down.