Traders Leave BitMEX & Deribit While PrimeXBT Starts Massive Hiring

Users of BitMEX, a popular margin trading platform, are used to getting “rekt” on the platform, but never saw what transpired last week coming. The platform inadvertently sent out a mass email to all users without a blind carbon copy, exposing the email addresses of tens of thousands of users, who are now at risk of having their personal information or potentially their crypto assets stolen as a result.

Not only is this situation a serious breach of user’s trust in the platform, but it is a very dangerous situation that has exposed customers to hackers and cyber criminals who have already used the sensitive information for harm.

BitMEX traders already had plenty of reason to take caution when using the platform, which has been accused of counter-trading against its clients and is under investigation by the CFTC. However, this latest situation may be the last straw for frustrated traders.

Deribit Flash Crash Sends Traders Packing

With BitMEX under investigation and accused of harmful business practices, many traders left the platform for derivatives trading platform Deribit. But they’ve already learned the hard way that it may have been a sore mistake.

Deribit last week experienced a massive flash crash and surge in the matter of a few moments, costing its users over $1.3 million in losses. The price of Bitcoin on Deribit dropped to $7,000 before exploding back up to more stable prices where the asset is currently trading.

Users were taken by surprise by the violent movement, and unable to react quickly enough to prevent substantial losses from occurring. Deribit suggested that users would need to “manage positions accordingly” and initially refused to roll back the trades of innocent users who got caught up in the unprecedented and unusual volatility. The platform later reimbursed users, however, not before trust in Deribit was damaged.

Crypto Traders Seek Out Better Privacy, Stronger Support

Evidence is mounting that potentially indicates that traders impacted by recurring issues such as flash crashes, data leaks, and more, are leaving the affected platforms for PrimeXBT.

Research shows that following the BitMEX leak and flash crash on Deribit, PrimeXBT experienced an enormous five-fold surge in trading volume, according to intel from popular cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko.

A new job listing posted on social media in search of additional support staff in various languages hints that the platform may be further preparing for an influx of new traders from around the world, following recent events. The platform’s support staff was recently honored by a respected influencer in the crypto community, therefore may simply be expanding customer service operations further to maintain quality as the business scales.

However, the evidence appears to suggest that the listing is more than a coincidence when combined with increasing trading volume on the platform and the fact that traders are actively exploring alternative options.

As more and more crypto trading platforms make glaring mistakes that impact their users, the crypto community is becoming wiser and savvier and is making better choices about where they choose to trade.