BitMEX Email Data Leak Fallout Is Serious, Many Users Already Affected

On the first day of November, it came to light that popular crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX had accidentally leaked sensitive data related to its users, which occurred as a result of the company failing to apply a blind copy protocol to its mass mail servers.

To make matters worse, unknown hackers were able to gain control of BitMEX's official Twitter account for a short while following the leak.

According to Larry Cermak, director of research for The Block, BitMEX's recent data compromise coincided with an email dump of around 30,000 addresses on the dark web.

Following such a major security lapse, it's reasonable to assume that BitMEX would have had to face some sort of backlash from its customers.

According to data available online, it appears as though the trading platform's total BTC withdrawal volume on Nov. 1 - one day after the email leak - remained largely unaffected.

"Trust is paramount in this industry and the fallout of a doxxing event like this will likely linger for a while. I think the near term will see some investors leave the platform but overall, BitMEX can bounce back from the incident given its market share and resources at its disposal."

According to data provider Skew, personal information belonging to 22,000 BitMEX users has likely been exposed online.

This, according to Primitive Crypto's Dovey Wan, could result in the United States government making use of the leaked email addresses to investigate the tax filings of many individuals linked with BitMEX. The exchange is not registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and therefore, Americans are restricted from engaging with the platform.

Not only that, but he also pointed out that the Federal Trade Commission could very well launch an investigation, or BitMEX users could decide to pursue a class-action lawsuit against the firm for the mishandling of their personal data.

"Following the leak, BitMEX users did receive unusual emails and there seems no doubt that those emails were the result of the leak. It also appears that the leaked email addresses have already been sold on the dark web, meaning that very serious hackers will now be attempting to phish people's passwords to steal crypto funds."