Tag Archives: Manuel S. Frey

CFTC and FinCEN Impose $100 Million Penalty on BitMEX

by H. Christopher Boehning, Walter Brown, Jessica S. Carey, Manuel S. Frey, Michael E. Gertzman, Mark F. Mendelsohn, Rachel Fiorill, Jacobus J. Schutte, and Bailey K. Williams

On August 10, 2021 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced $100 million in civil money penalties against BitMEX, a convertible virtual currency (CVC) derivatives exchange, for violations of the Currency Exchange Act (CEA) and the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).[i]  This was FinCEN’s first enforcement action against a futures commission merchant (FCM), and the latest in a series of regulatory enforcement actions in the cryptocurrency space.  Continue reading →

VinDAX Is the Seventh Cryptocurrency Exchange Hacked This Year: What Should Investors Be Considering?

by Mark S. Bergman, Roberto Finzi, Christopher D. Frey, Manuel S. Frey, David S. Huntington, Jeannie S. Rhee, Raphael M. Russo, Jonathan H. Ashtor, Steven C. Herzog, Daniel J. Klein, and Apeksha S. Vora

On November 5, 2019, Vietnam-based cryptocurrency exchange VinDAX was hacked, losing half a million U.S. dollars’ worth of funds spread across 23 different cryptocurrencies.[1] The VinDAX hack marks the latest in a series of cryptocurrency exchange hacks and data breaches that have taken place this year, and is part of a larger and growing trend of digital currency heists that have occurred since Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, was introduced in 2008.[2] In July of this year, Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitpoint was also hacked, losing about $32 million in cryptocurrency,[3] and earlier this year, hackers stole $16 million worth of cryptocurrency from New Zealand-based Cryptopia.[4]  Losses from cryptocurrency hacks this year alone are reported to have totaled around $1.39 billion worth of assets.[5] Continue reading →