Home
News
- 1 The Hong Kong crypto watchdog SFC issued a warning against the JPEX exchange.
- 2 According to it, the exchange is claiming to be a licensed body when it is actually not.
- 3 As a result, JPEX raised its withdrawal fee and its staff abandoned a booth in Singapore.
The FTX incident has taught one major lesson to all crypto enthusiasts. It is that any crypto firm, no matter how legitimate it looks, can be fraudulent. Something similar may be happening in Singapore as well.
Established in 2020, JPEX is a crypto exchange that focuses on the Asia Pacific region. The platform became quite popular in a very short span. So much so that it opened brick-and-mortar outlets as well. Everything was going fine for the exchange until now.
Did SFC Trigger the Downfall of JPEX?
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a warning against JPEX on September 13. Hong Kong’s crypto watchdog stated that JPEX is not licensed to operate in this jurisdiction. It said that the exchange can’t promote its service without a license, but this firm is violating all rules. As per the regulator, the exchange’s website claims to be a licensed and government-recognized platform.
The watchdog also reminded that it had notified all the service providers of this domain about this. It claims that it informed the relevant leaders of the domain about the exchange’s suspicious activities. After the warning, JPEX took some steps that raised the suspicions even more. First, its staff abandoned its Token 2049 booth in Singapore. Then, JPEX also increased its withdrawal fee now stands at 999 USDT.
Apparently, they don’t want the users to withdraw their funds from the exchange. After the warning, some users also shared their disappointment over X (Twitter) posts. As of now, no one can say for sure that the exchange tried to fool people. The staff abandoning the outlet raises firm doubts. But maybe they were just afraid of being rounded off by police.
Trying To Get The Nitty-Gritty of Scams
Regulations in crypto have been and are still a gray area. Currently, many countries are in the process of drafting a legal framework around crypto. Most probably, Europe will introduce MiCA in the next couple of years. However, no country has yet implemented a legal structure governing the crypto assets and their service providers.
Binance, Coinbase, and Ripple are some big names in the industry facing legal battles due to this. The crypto supporters will certainly say that it’s all happening because of the ambiguous rules. But the truth is that the crypto actors know it very well. They also know that taking advantage of loopholes could be beneficial in the short term. But it backfires in the long run.
Why do exchanges and other crypto firms take such risks? That could depend on a case-to-case basis as there are so many instances. In a case like FTX, one can say that it was a scam planned very meticulously and craftily. On the other hand, the case of Binance, Coinbase, and Ripple looks like a result of unclear regulations.
Perhaps these instances will keep happening unless most nations define their crypto rules. Therefore, the digital assets users are hoping that it will happen soon. Ultimately, it will also save innocent investors from becoming a victim of scams.
With a background in journalism, Ritika Sharma has worked with many reputed media firms focusing on general news such as politics and crime. She joined The Coin Republic as a reporter for crypto, and found a great passion for cryptocurrency, Web3, NFTs and other digital assets. She spends a lot of time researching and delving deeper into these concepts around the clock, and is a strong advocate for women in STEM.
