<story><title>Federal Court Orders BitMEX to Pay $100M over Illegal Crypto Trading</title><url>https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8412-21</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>chowells</author><text>&amp;gt; I am just another guy trying to make a buck like everyone else on this planet.&lt;p&gt;What? Most people aren&amp;#x27;t trying to make a quick buck by rent-seeking in a system based on massive electrical waste.&lt;p&gt;Myself? I cut my work hours recently so that I can live now instead of dreaming of someday. I spend my free time enjoying my life, not trying to figure out who to exploit.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s also an option.</text></item><item><author>johnnyApplePRNG</author><text>So I&amp;#x27;m working on a crypto derivatives trading bot... have been for a few years now... it&amp;#x27;s going alright.&lt;p&gt;I am personally situated in Ontario, Canada, and getting more and more anxious by the day as seemingly every major legitimate derivatives trading platform with any volume is banning Ontarians from trading.&lt;p&gt;Kraken, Bitmex, Okex, and Huobi all won&amp;#x27;t even look at me simply because I have a personal address inside Ontario.&lt;p&gt;I can trade on their spot markets with them, sure... but the fees are MUCH higher than that of derivatives markets and my bot isn&amp;#x27;t THAT good to swallow a 0.3% trade cost when it&amp;#x27;s essentially performing high frequency trading. A fee of 0.075% however is manageable.&lt;p&gt;Binance still allows me to trade derivatives, and I can&amp;#x27;t figure out how or why. They don&amp;#x27;t have any legal authority to allow Ontarians to trade afaik, and they&amp;#x27;re the absolute largest derivatives trading platform on the planet right now.&lt;p&gt;I tried setting up a corporation in the UK back when Bitmex originally banned Ontarians, but when I went to register that corporation as a trader with Bitmex, they demanded to know the identity of all of the owners of the corporation, and if any of them resided inside Ontario then they wouldn&amp;#x27;t work with that corporation as well.&lt;p&gt;(the bot was originally setup to trade on Bitmex as they had the most liquidity at the time, but that has dwindled significantly ever since they banned Ontarians and all of the USA from trading in October 2020)&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t have millions of dollars in my pocket, so I don&amp;#x27;t have the money to jump through legal loopholes by registering shell corporations and paying representatives to act as proxy owners in non-banned jurisdictions.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not doing anything wrong imho. I&amp;#x27;m not risking my life savings or going to crash the cryptocurrency market with my derivatives trading ways or whatever the Ontario government is trying to protect me from?&lt;p&gt;I am just another guy trying to make a buck like everyone else on this planet. Why is my government trying to prevent me from doing so at every turn? I just don&amp;#x27;t get it?&lt;p&gt;What are my options if&amp;#x2F;when Binance decides to ban Ontarians as well?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>andreilys</author><text>&lt;i&gt;I spend my free time enjoying my life, not trying to figure out who to exploit.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;It’s not clear to me why building a derivatives trading bot leads to exploitation but whatever floats your ideological boat I suppose.</text></comment>
<story><title>Federal Court Orders BitMEX to Pay $100M over Illegal Crypto Trading</title><url>https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8412-21</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>chowells</author><text>&amp;gt; I am just another guy trying to make a buck like everyone else on this planet.&lt;p&gt;What? Most people aren&amp;#x27;t trying to make a quick buck by rent-seeking in a system based on massive electrical waste.&lt;p&gt;Myself? I cut my work hours recently so that I can live now instead of dreaming of someday. I spend my free time enjoying my life, not trying to figure out who to exploit.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s also an option.</text></item><item><author>johnnyApplePRNG</author><text>So I&amp;#x27;m working on a crypto derivatives trading bot... have been for a few years now... it&amp;#x27;s going alright.&lt;p&gt;I am personally situated in Ontario, Canada, and getting more and more anxious by the day as seemingly every major legitimate derivatives trading platform with any volume is banning Ontarians from trading.&lt;p&gt;Kraken, Bitmex, Okex, and Huobi all won&amp;#x27;t even look at me simply because I have a personal address inside Ontario.&lt;p&gt;I can trade on their spot markets with them, sure... but the fees are MUCH higher than that of derivatives markets and my bot isn&amp;#x27;t THAT good to swallow a 0.3% trade cost when it&amp;#x27;s essentially performing high frequency trading. A fee of 0.075% however is manageable.&lt;p&gt;Binance still allows me to trade derivatives, and I can&amp;#x27;t figure out how or why. They don&amp;#x27;t have any legal authority to allow Ontarians to trade afaik, and they&amp;#x27;re the absolute largest derivatives trading platform on the planet right now.&lt;p&gt;I tried setting up a corporation in the UK back when Bitmex originally banned Ontarians, but when I went to register that corporation as a trader with Bitmex, they demanded to know the identity of all of the owners of the corporation, and if any of them resided inside Ontario then they wouldn&amp;#x27;t work with that corporation as well.&lt;p&gt;(the bot was originally setup to trade on Bitmex as they had the most liquidity at the time, but that has dwindled significantly ever since they banned Ontarians and all of the USA from trading in October 2020)&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t have millions of dollars in my pocket, so I don&amp;#x27;t have the money to jump through legal loopholes by registering shell corporations and paying representatives to act as proxy owners in non-banned jurisdictions.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not doing anything wrong imho. I&amp;#x27;m not risking my life savings or going to crash the cryptocurrency market with my derivatives trading ways or whatever the Ontario government is trying to protect me from?&lt;p&gt;I am just another guy trying to make a buck like everyone else on this planet. Why is my government trying to prevent me from doing so at every turn? I just don&amp;#x27;t get it?&lt;p&gt;What are my options if&amp;#x2F;when Binance decides to ban Ontarians as well?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>johnnyApplePRNG</author><text>So what I am doing is wrong, but trading derivatives with less leverage in sanctioned markets is allowed&amp;#x2F;legal?&lt;p&gt;I get it, I could be doing something much more productive with my life.&lt;p&gt;The money this bot makes isn&amp;#x27;t for myself if that&amp;#x27;s any consolation. Not most of it anyways.&lt;p&gt;I have big plans to use the money generated to help the poor.&lt;p&gt;I live very frugally, exclusively shop at thrift stores, drive a 20 year old car that I fix myself, and am frustrated with all of the homelessness I see in my city.&lt;p&gt;In my eyes, this bot is the only way I can stand to make a real dent in that pressing issue. All I know how to do is code.&lt;p&gt;My cryptocurrency of choice is Stellar actually, it doesn&amp;#x27;t use any electricity hardly whatsoever to keep it&amp;#x27;s blockchain safe.&lt;p&gt;Not all cryptocurrencies are hell-bent on destroying the globe. Some of them actually try to solve real problems.</text></comment>