BitMEX CTO Samuel Reed has been released from custody on a $5 million appearance bond secured by $500,000 in cash. An appearance bond is a written promise to appear in court and to serve the sentence the court imposes if convicted. If Reed fails to do either of these things, the bond would be forfeited.
BitMEX’s legal troubles
Reed was arrested on October 1st in Massachusetts shortly after the CFTC and the DoJ pressed charges against BitMEX for running an unregistered trading platform as well as violating anti-money laundering and know-your-customer regulations, and for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, respectively.
Since then, it has been all downhill for BitMEX; after the CFTC and DoJ announced that they would be pressing charges against BitMEX, money began leaving the BitMEX exchange in exodus.
Just one week later, BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes, CTO Samuel Reed, co-founder Ben Delo, and Head of Business Development Greg Dwyer resigned from their roles at BitMEX and BitMEX’s holding company 100x group.
The global crackdown has begun
Since the CFTC and DoJ went after BitMEX, there has been a cascade of legal frameworks that have been created to protect consumers from bad actors in the blockchain and digital currency space.
On the same day the CFTC and DoJ pressed charges against BitMEX, the legendary ICO shill John McAfee was arrested in Spain, a few days later, the Financial Conduct Authority banned the sale of digital currency derivative products to retail investors in the UK. Subsequently, the United State’s Attorney General’s Cyber-Digital Task Force released a new report titled Cryptocurrency: An Enforcement Framework, that took a deep dive into blockchain and digital currency, its legitimate uses, its criminal uses, as well as current legislation and government action being taken to protect the public.
The BitMEX case is just the tip of the iceberg, there will be more companies in the blockchain and digital asset space that will have to face the government in the near future. BitMEX was a crucial piece of a crypto crime cartel that has been working together for years to facilitate, racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering. Beyond BitMEX, Kraken, Binance, Bitcoin.com, Blockstream, and Ethereum have all been known to facilitate illegal business. With government agencies around the world cracking down on bad actors in the blockchain and digital currency industry, it is only a matter of time until these illicit actors face the same fate as BitMEX.
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