The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed charges against derivatives platform BitMEX and its executive members on October 1. In a separate filing, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New York filed criminal action against the company’s executives.

• The CFTC's charges include a failure to obtain approval from the CFTC and a lack of KYC/AML procedures.
• The NY Attorney charges CEO Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed, for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, among other complaints; one executive, CTO Gregory Dwyer, has already been arrested 
• CFTC Chairman Heath P. Tarbert said that if the US is to be a global leader in the digital assets space, it would have to ensure compliance, also saying that “digital assets hold great promise for our derivatives markets and for our economy”
• Registered in Seychelles, BitMEX holds over $2 billion in Bitcoin and is one of the market’s most popular derivatives platforms
• The platform has released a statement, saying that it strongly disagreed with the decision and intends to “defend the allegations vigorously”
• The price of Bitcoin dropped approximately $400 shortly after the news