- CoinBene has not attained proper licensure for trading crypto assets.
- CoinBene is also suspected of suppressing facts concerning a hack.
Germany’s financial regulator, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has expressed concern about cryptocurrency exchange CoinBene. The regulator stated that CoinBene has been recruiting freelance crypto traders and paying them on commission. Since crypto assets are financial instruments, BaFin says that trading them requires authorization under ‘Germany’s Banking Act, or Kreditwesengesetz (KWG).
CoinBene is neither listed in ‘Germany’s commercial register nor has it attained proper licensure for trading crypto assets as required by the KWG. CoinBene, for their part, has denied these allegations:
“We received numerous inquiries regarding our alleged hiring in Germany. But CoinBene is not planning to open any office nor hiring any representative in Germany. Nonetheless, we would like to thank those who actively reached out to us for your concern and understanding.”
CoinBene is also suspected of suppressing facts concerning a hack, but it claims that the flow of outgoing funds was the result of ongoing maintenance. However, data scientists at blockchain infrastructure firm Elementus concluded that the patterns of the consistent outgoing transactions could only be seen in a hack. David Brierley, CEO of Howdoo, is reportedly seeking to file a class action suit against the exchange claiming to have lost 18.4 million of the ‘company’s token uDOO ($209,000) in the process.
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