来源：人民币交易与研究
前白宫高级经济学家、有着“末日博士”之称的努里埃尔•鲁比尼教授近日发表观点文章称，加密货币已经催生了一个全新的犯罪行业，包括不受监管的离岸交易所、付费宣传机构，以及一群试图敲诈散户投资者的骗子。然而，尽管有大量证据表明欺诈和滥用行为猖獗，金融监管机构和执法机构仍在玩忽职守。
有充分的的理由表明，世界上每一个文明国家都严格监管其金融体系。毕竟，2008年的全球金融危机在很大程度上是放松金融监管的结果。罪犯和骗子是生活的一部分，除非投资者受到保护，否则任何金融体系都无法发挥其应有的作用。
There is a good reason why every civilized country in the world tightly regulates its financial system. The 2008 global financial crisis, after all, was largely the result of rolling back financial regulation. Crooks, criminals, and grifters are a fact of life, and no financial system can serve its proper purpose unless investors are protected from them.
因此，有法规要求证券注册，货币服务活动获得许可，资本控制包括“反洗钱”(AML)和“了解客户”(KYC)条款(以防止逃税和其他非法资金流动)，以及货币经理为客户的利益服务。由于这些法律法规保护了投资者和社会，因此与之相关的合规成本是合理和适当的。
Hence, there are regulations requiring that securities be registered, that money-servicing activities be licensed, that capital controls include “anti-money-laundering” (AML) and “know your customer” (KYC) provisions (to prevent tax evasion and other illicit financial flows), and that money managers serve their clients’ interests. Because these laws and regulations protect investors and society, the compliance costs associated with them are reasonable and appropriate.
但目前的监管制度并没有涵盖所有金融活动。加密货币通常是在官方金融监管领域之外发行和交易的，在官方金融监管领域，规避合规成本被宣传为一种效率来源。其结果是，加密领域变成了一个不受监管的赌场，肆无忌惮的犯罪活动在这里横行。
But the current regulatory regime does not capture all financial activity. Cryptocurrencies are routinely launched and traded outside the domain of official financial oversight, where avoidance of compliance costs is advertised as a source of efficiency. The result is that crypto land has become an unregulated casino, where unchecked criminality runs riot.
这不仅仅是猜测。一些最大的加密玩家可能公开参与系统的非法行为。以BitMEX交易所为例，这是一家不受监管的数万亿美元加密衍生品交易所，注册地在塞舌尔，但在全球范围内都很活跃。其首席执行官亚瑟•海耶斯(Arthur Hayes)公开吹嘘称，Bitmex的商业模式涉及以100比1的杠杆率向“堕落的赌徒”（即无知的散户投资者）兜售加密衍生品。
This is not mere conjecture. Some of the biggest crypto players may be openly involved in systematic illegality. Consider BitMEX, an unregulated trillion-dollar exchange of crypto derivatives that is domiciled in the Seychelles but active globally. Its CEO, Arthur Hayes, boasted openly that the BitMEX business model involves peddling to “degenerate gamblers” (meaning clueless retail investors) crypto derivatives with 100-to-one leverage.
很明显，在杠杆率为100比1的情况下，即使基础资产价格变动1%，也可能引发追加保证金的要求，并抹去个人的所有投资。更糟糕的是，BitMEX无论何时买入或卖出其有毒金融工具，都会收取高额费用，然后再进一步将客户的存款吸进一个“清算基金”， 这个基金可能比避免交易对手风险所需的要大很多倍。根据一位独立研究人员的估计，清算业务有时占BitMEX收入的一半，这也不足为奇。
To be clear, with 100-to-one leverage, even a 1% change in the price of the underlying assets could trigger a margin call and wipe out all of one’s investment. Worse, BitMEX applies high fees whenever one buys or sells its toxic instruments, and then it takes another bite of the apple by siphoning customers’ savings into a “liquidation fund” that is likely to be many times larger than what is necessary to avoid counter-party risk. It is little wonder that, according to one independent researcher’s estimates, liquidations at times account for up to half of BitMEX’s revenue.
BitMEX的内部人士向我透露，这个交易所每天也被俄罗斯、伊朗和其他地方的恐怖分子和其他罪犯分子用于大规模洗钱;交易所没有采取任何措施来阻止这种情况，因为它可以从这些交易中获利。
BitMEX insiders revealed to me that this exchange is also used daily for money laundering on a massive scale by terrorists and other criminals from Russia, Iran, and elsewhere; the exchange does nothing to stop this, as it profits from these transactions.
似乎这还不够，BitMEX还有一个以盈利为目的的内部交易平台(据称是为了做市)，该交易平台被指控在前端运营自己的客户。海耶斯（BitMEX CEO）对此予以否认，但由于BitMEX完全不受监管，没有对其账户进行独立审计，因此无法知道幕后发生了什么。
As if that were not enough, BitMEX also has an internal for-profit trading desk (supposedly for the purpose of market making) that has been accused of front running its own clients. Hayes has denied this, but because BitMEX is totally unregulated, there are no independent audits of its accounts, and thus no way of knowing what happens behind the scenes.
无论如何，我们确实知道BitMEX绕开了AML/KYC规则。尽管该公司声称不为受此类法律约束的美国和英国投资者提供服务，但其“核实”其公民身份的方法是检查他们的IP地址，而标准VPN应用程序很容易就能掩盖他们的IP地址。这种缺乏尽职调查的行为构成了对证券法律法规的公然违反。海耶斯甚至公开挑战任何试图在不受监管的塞舌尔起诉他的人，因为他知道自己是在法律法规的阴影下运作的。
At any rate, we do know that BitMEX skirts AML/KYC regulations. Though it claims not to serve US and UK investors who are subject to such laws, its method of “verifying” their citizenship is to check their IP address, which can easily be masked with a standard VPN application. This lack of due diligence constitutes a brazen violation of securities laws and regulations. Hayes even openly challenged anyone to try to sue him in the unregulated Seychelles, knowing he operates in the shadow of laws and regulations.
本月早些时候，我在台北与海耶斯进行了辩论，并提出他诈骗犯罪的事实。但是，我不知道的是，他从会议组织者那里获得了该活动视频的专有权，并在一周内拒绝全部发布。相反，他发表了精心挑选的“亮点”，给人留下他表现出色的印象。我想这在加密骗子中是司空见惯的事，但具有讽刺意味的是，一个自称代表“抵抗”审查制度的人，在他的骗局被曝光后，却成了所有审查制度之父。最后，在自己的支持者的公开羞辱下，他软化了态度，并发布了这段视频。
Earlier this month, I debated Hayes in Taipei and called out his racket. But, unbeknownst to me, he had secured exclusive rights to the video of the event from the conference organizers, and refused for a week to release it in full. Instead, he published cherry-picked “highlights” to create the impression that he performed well. I suppose this is par for the course among crypto scammers, but it is ironic that someone who claims to represent the “resistance” against censorship has become the father of all censors now that his con has been exposed. Finally, shamed in public by his own supporters, he relented and released the video.
就在我们辩论的同一天，英国金融市场行为监管局(Financial Conduct Authority)提议彻底禁止零售高风险加密投资。然而，除非政策制定者采取一致的反应，否则被诱惑进入加密领域的散户投资者将继续上当受骗。价格操纵在所有的加密交易所中都很猖獗，这是由于拉高出货机制、交易清洗、欺骗、前端运行和其他形式的操纵造成的。根据一项研究，高达95%的比特币交易都是假的，这表明欺诈并非特例，而是普遍现象。
On the same day we debated, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority proposed an outright ban on retail high-risk crypto investments. Yet, barring a concerted response by policymakers, retail investors who are lured into the crypto domain will continue to be suckered. Price manipulation is rampant across all the crypto exchanges, owing to pump-and-dump schemes, wash trading, spoofing, front running, and other forms of manipulation. According to one study, up to 95% of all transactions in Bitcoin are fake, indicating that fraud is not the exception but the rule.
当然，一个不受监管的市场会成为骗子、罪犯和推销员的游乐场也就不足为奇了。加密交易创造了一个数十亿美元的产业，不仅包括交易所，还包括伪装成记者的宣传人员、鼓吹自己的金融书籍以兜售“垃圾硬币”的机会主义者，以及寻求监管豁免的游说人士。在这一切的背后，是一个新兴的犯罪团伙，它会让黑手党感到羞愧。
