BitMEX Accelerates Mandatory ID Verification After Charges of Lax Anti-Money Laundering Controls

BitMEX, which has been charged by the U.S. government and a regulator with facilitating unregistered trading, has accelerated its mandate for all customers to verify their identities by Nov. 5, three months earlier than its original deadline of early February.

Stronger identity verification requirements is an industry trend, said Ben Radclyffe, commercial director of the exchange’s parent company 100x Group, in an interview with CoinDesk. BitMEX’s decision to move the deadline from February 2021 to November 2020 follows this trend and internal plans the exchange has worked on for “over a year with a considerable amount of resources dedicated to this.”

In August, the famously freewheeling bitcoin derivatives exchange announced mandatory identity verification. Less than two months later, charges were filed against the exchange by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and as a result nearly 30% of its bitcoin balance were withdrawn by clients.

Under the accelerated timeline, by 0:00 UTC on Nov. 5, all BitMEX traders and affiliates identities must be verified before increasing or opening new positions. By Dec. 4., all accounts must be verified in order to process withdrawals from the exchange. After Dec. 4, BitMEX will begin to close unverified accounts, Radclyffe told CoinDesk.

“Well over 50% of BitMEX’s current trading volume comes from verified accounts,” said Radclyffe, representing the trading activity of tens of thousands of accounts.

“The industry’s KYC-free are coming to a close,” said 100x’s chief compliance officer, Malcolm Wright. BitMEX’s accelerated identity verification deadline along with other corporate initiatives, including an internal anti-money laundering working group, are efforts by 100x, according to Wright, to become an industry leader in identity verification initiatives.