The trading platform and its co-founders are accused of manipulating the digital asset market, money laundering and other illegal activities

BMA LLC filed a lawsuit in the US district court against the BitMEX derivatives exchange and its co-founders Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel reed, newsbtc reports. The trading platform is charged with the following counts:

-manipulation of the cryptocurrency market and prices;
-fraud;
-unfair business practices;
-money laundering and illegal management of funds raised.

The lawsuit clarifies that in 2019, almost 15% of all transactions on the BitMEX exchange, which is approximately $138 billion, were made by traders from the United States. Despite this, the management of the trading platform did not request the necessary license from the financial regulator to make money transfers within the country.

"Based on data from the BitMEX exchange, it must be recognized that the service processed an average of $3 billion of illegal and unlicensed money transfers per day, violating US Federal laws," the lawsuit says.

At the moment, another lawsuit has been filed against BitMEX. In December, early investors of the platform accused its management of not giving them a stake in the company that reached $50 million. The amount of claims is $540 million, reports The Block.

In March, the UK authorities warned against using the BitMEX crypto exchange. The country's financial supervision authority reported that the derivatives platform did not receive a permit to operate on the territory of the state.