Cryptocurrency Market News: Bitcoin and others crash after illegal accusations against BitMEX

Here is what you need to know on October 2

BTC/USD is trading at $10,570 after a notable 2% dip today after the negative news from BitMEX. 

ETH/USD had similar price action but remains stronger than the rest at $350. Bulls are trying to defend the 12-EMA on the daily chart to survive. 

XRP/USD lost several short-term support levels and its trading at $0.236.

Chart of the day: BTC/USD 15-minutes chart

Market

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has just accused BitMEX of allegedly facilitating unregistered trading to customers. Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed were all charged. Samuel Reed was, in fact, arrested this morning in Massachussets. 

The U.S. Attorney for the District of New York has indicted all three individuals along with Gregory Dwyer on federal charges of ‘violating the Ban Secrecy Act and conspiracy to violate the Bank Secrecy Act’.

Although this is not the first rodeo BitMEX has been through, it is by far the most serious one. Many investors quickly jumped into short positions expecting a wide sell-off and for the most part, it happened already with the market losing close to $14 billion in market capitalization. 

Industry 

Definer, which already conducted a successful token sale in September, it’s launching another smaller sale for the community. Definer is one of the most popular upcoming cryptocurrency projects and will conduct its new sale through Coinlist, a specialized token offering platform.

We wanted to give back to our community. Through this sale, everyone can have a chance to participate—not just the big investors, said Jason Wu, DeFiner CEO and Co-founder. Our community has been so helpful and patient. They are the foundation of our ecosystem. So they deserve access to its founding.

Diginex Limited, a cryptocurrency exchange that raised $50 million will be listed on Nasdaq starting today using the ticker ‘EQOS’. 

Richard Byworth, CEO of Diginex, commented:

 This is a watershed moment for both Diginex and the cryptocurrency industry with the listing of the first-ever company with a crypto exchange on Nasdaq. This also presents the first opportunity for anyone trading in the US capital markets to buy directly into the equity of a digital asset ecosystem and opens the door for financial institutions to participate in the enormous opportunity that digital assets present.

Quote of the day

PayPal had these goals of creating a new currency. We failed at that, and we just created a new payment system. I think Bitcoin has succeeded on the level of a new currency, but the payment system is somewhat lacking. It’s very hard to use, and that’s the big challenge on the Bitcoin side.

– Peter Thiel