BitMEX因Celsius诉讼面临挑战，交易所关闭临近

Celsius破产财团起诉BitMEX关联公司，指控其在2020年3月加密市场崩盘期间存在欺诈与市场操纵行为

Celsius破产财团已向美国纽约南区破产法院提起诉讼，指控几家与BitMEX有关联的公司，在2020年3月的加密市场崩盘期间从事欺诈、市场操纵以及不当清算活动。根据法院文件显示，该财团指控BitMEX在市场抛售期间清算了Celsius的头寸并扣押了其作为抵押品的比特币（Bitcoin）。财团方面声称，这些行动是由一家交易所的“清算引擎”所驱动，该引擎控制了清算触发价格，执行订单并将收益转入保险基金。

该诉讼由代表Blockchain Recovery Investment Consortium（BRIC）的Celsius实体于9月12日提交，恰逢BitMEX计划于9月23日停止交易所服务的前几天。

关键要点

• 诉讼指控BitMEX于2020年3月12日至13日期间清算了与Celsius相关的头寸，并扣押了1,325.84枚比特币以及与某投资基金挂钩的其他抵押品。
• 财团声称，BitMEX上的清算触发条件和订单设置方式，导致在市场崩盘期间产生了超出必要程度的抛压。
• 该 filings 寻求追回价值约4.9亿美元的比特币（基于撰写时的价值），以及各类损害赔偿费和费用。
• BitMEX said it suffered a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on March 13, and the consortium used this as evidence, pointing to its forced sale mechanism suppressing prices.
• Court documents leave part of the damages to be determined at trial rather than specifying in advance the amounts claimed.

Complaint against BitMEX-affiliated entities

The September 12 complaint lists five defendants allegedly associated with BitMEX: HDR Global Trading, ABS Global Trading, Shine Effort, 100x Holdings and HDR Global Services. The complaint was filed during Celsius bankruptcy proceedings.

In the filing, the consortium accused BitMEX of illegally liquidating Celsius's collateral on March 12, 2020 and seizing 1,325.84 bitcoins. The document further alleges that the next day, BitMEX cleared 5,034.33 bitcoins from the investment fund JST. The complaint alleges that JST subsequently transferred rights related to the claims to the consortium.

The lawsuit aims to recover nearly US$490 million worth of Bitcoin (based on value at the time of writing). In addition, it also seeks compensation for the actual loss of at least 6,360.16 bitcoins (or their current equivalent) and requires the return of bitcoins in physical form or payment of a sum equivalent to the market value. Other remedies requested include statutory damages, punitive damages, triple damages where applicable, profits the consortium claims BitMEX earned from liquidation, and legal fees and costs. The complaint did not quantify some of the additional claims, stating that the amounts should be determined during the trial.

Allegations of liquidation mechanisms exacerbating market meltdown

The core theme of the consortium's allegations is that BitMEX controlled key parts of the liquidation process. Complaint asserts that BitMEX determines the prices used to trigger clearing, provides the "engine" to perform these operations, and manages insurance funds that receive the proceeds of certain clearing positions.

Specifically, the consortium alleges that the price of some liquidating sell orders was more than 24% lower than the price of the platform's last best sell order. The consortium also claimed that during the intensified clearing cycle, Bitcoin traded on BitMEX at a lower price than rival exchanges.

Court documents argue that these mechanisms have caused downward price pressures, rather than just reflecting such pressures. From the consortium's perspective, the timing of events around March 13, 2020 was particularly thought-provoking: it claimed that when BitMEX became unavailable, clearing orders stopped, and Bitcoin prices subsequently recovered. This pattern was used as evidence that forced sales activities by exchanges have been suppressing market prices.

Citing the March 13 DDoS outage

The consortium cited the March 13 service outage as part of its argument that BitMEX's clearing activity intensified the selling. To support this point in time, the document quotes BitMEX's statement that the exchange experienced a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on March 13.

As described in BitMEX's response released at the time, the exchange reported two DDoS attacks at 02:16 and 12:56 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on March 13.

对于投资者和市场参与者来说，诉讼中嵌入的实际问题很简单：如果交易所清算系统的运作方式拉低了价格——可能比现有的订单簿所暗示的要更激进——那么危机期间清算的影响可能不仅限于“必要的”风险控制。相反，它可能反映了特定场所内部的特定匹配和执行行为。

时机和目标的重要性

该文件的提交时间值得注意。据报道，投诉于9月12日提交，并在BitMEX计划于9月23日停止交易所服务前不久到达。这种接近性提高了破产财团的赌注，因为该财团试图追回在加密市场历史压力时期 allegedly 损失的资产。

此案也不是与同一窗口期内BitMEX清算行为相关的第一个法律行动。早先的报道提到，7月23日，BKX Services和大卫·纳姆达尔（David Namdar）提起了一项单独的拟议集体诉讼，指控因强制清算造成的联合损失为622.66枚比特币。如资料所述，那份早期的投诉指控内部交易台可以访问私人客户信息，并在服务器冻结期间继续交易。

针对7月的案件，消息来源称，BitMEX的一位发言人告诉媒体，这些说法是“毫无根据的机会主义索赔”，并且BitMEX将进行自我辩护。报道还指出，这一声明是关于7月的诉讼，而不是对Celsius投诉的回应。

Celsius财团的下一步

As the lawsuit seeks both direct recovery of Bitcoin and broader legal, punitive and triple damages-while leaving part of the claimed amount open to trial-the next challenge facing the Celsius bankrupt consortium will be to confirm the allowed liquidation mechanism and tie it to specific losses during the March 2020 crash. Market observers should focus on how the court handles evidence related to the quality of execution during stressful times, and whether the allowed price differences and the time points surrounding the March 13 interruption are sufficient to support the consortium's theories of fraud and market manipulation.