BitMEX may offload $100M digital assets amid insurance fund reallocation
BitMEX said the transactions are not expected to impact users’ trading activities.
Crypto derivatives trading platform BitMEX could dump as much as $100 million worth of digital assets, including Tether (USDT) and Ethereum (ETH), from its insurance fund for U.S. Dollars that would be held in the custody accounts of its banking partners, according to a Sept. 28 notice.
The exchange said the planned transactions are part of its fund reallocation process that would start today and continue for several weeks. BitMEX did not provide additional information about its banking partners or how much funds it plans to reallocate.
However, its insurance fund dashboard showed that it held $80.2 million worth of USDT and 12,751.1611 ETH, worth $20.7 million as of Sept. 27. The dashboard also showed that the exchange holds 36,769.3244 XBT (Bitcoin), which is nearly around $1 billion.
BitMEX has not yet responded to CryptoSlate’s request for comment regarding the extent to which it intends to reallocate funds from its insurance pool.
Meanwhile, the exchange stated that the transactions are not expected to impact users’ trading activities, positions, deposits, or withdrawal frequencies.
BitMEX’s insurance fund is a crucial safeguard against the automatic de-risking of profitable traders when facing liquidated positions. Its primary purpose is to avert insolvency by guaranteeing traders never incur losses beyond their initially posted margin.
“The Insurance Fund provides an assurance that, despite this limited downside for losing traders, the upside is not limited either, and profitable traders are likely to receive their expected profits.”