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 →