U.S. Federal Judge Orders BitMEX to Pay $100 Million Fine for Money-Laundering Violations from 2015-2020

Jan 15, 2025, 06:39 PM

A U.S. federal judge has ordered BitMEX, an offshore cryptocurrency exchange, to pay a $100 million fine for violating U.S. banking laws, specifically for money-laundering violations over a five-year period from 2015 to 2020. The fine was imposed by Judge John G. Koeltl of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, who rejected BitMEX's argument that previous penalties totaling $110 million and guilty pleas were sufficient punishment. BitMEX had previously admitted to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act in July of the previous year. The Department of Justice had initially sought a $200 million penalty, but the court settled on the lower amount. Alongside the fine, HDR Global Trading Limited, BitMEX's parent company, was sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation. BitMEX founders Arthur Hayes and Benjamin Delo had previously pled guilty to similar charges in 2022, each agreeing to a $10 million criminal fine.