The Dark Side of Crypto Trading: Inside One Exchange's Controversial Operations

I've been digging into this Singapore-based exchange that Matt Damon got paid to promote, and what I found is pretty disturbing. These guys are running internal trading teams that are literally playing both sides of the market - while claiming they're just an innocent platform matching buyers with sellers. Talk about wolves guarding the henhouse!

From what I've seen firsthand, this exchange operates proprietary trading desks that actively trade against their own customers. Can you believe that? They're essentially seeing all our orders and positions, then using that info to make profits for themselves. It's like playing poker against someone who can see your cards.

The US regulators are finally waking up to this crap. The SEC recently hammered another major exchange with 13 charges including market manipulation. About damn time! As Gary Gensler put it, traditional exchanges don't act like hedge funds or market makers - so why should these crypto operations get away with it?

What really pisses me off is how they've been lying about it. According to reports, executives gave false sworn statements to external trading houses, denying they were trading themselves! Staff were basically told to lie about their internal market making operations. When caught, they offered some weak excuse that their trading desk "operates on par with third-party market makers" - whatever that's supposed to mean.

Their defense that "all participants are treated equally" is complete bullshit. How can you treat everyone fairly when you can see everyone's cards? Their proprietary desk trades on multiple platforms with the sole purpose of making money - not helping the market function better.

The most frustrating part is that as a private company, they don't have to disclose how much revenue comes from potentially screwing their customers through these trading operations. This whole setup stinks of conflicts of interest and undermines any claim of market integrity.

I used to trust crypto exchanges as alternatives to traditional finance, but now I wonder if they're even worse. At least Wall Street's conflicts of interest are somewhat regulated. These guys? They're just making up the rules as they go.