One of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges – Crypto.com – was recently rumored to have conducted proprietary trading, whereas some of its teams might have traded assets for profit. 

The company rejected the accusations, asserting it has adopted best practices to operate in the industry.

Crypto.com Under Fire

Five people with direct knowledge of the matter supposedly told Financial Times that the cryptocurrency platform had deployed internal teams to engage in illegal activities, including proprietary trading. One of the individuals revealed that Crypto.com executives made employees sign “sworn statements” that the firm is not involved in such actions. They were also asked to “say there is no internal market maker type operation.”

Another person claimed that the proprietary trading desk functions on the firm’s platform and has spread to separate venues. The team in charge of that operation aims to make money “and not facilitate an exchange,” they added.

Crypto.com said it has never urged its staff to lie to other market participants. It also assured that most of its revenue comes from its application for retail traders.

“As such, the Crypto.com trading team ensures that Crypto.com is risk neutral by hedging these positions on a number of venues, including the Crypto.com exchange,” the entity stated. 

The exchange dismissed the claims that its market-making unit attempts to boost liquidity. Instead, its priority is to “continuously improve order book liquidity and lowering spreads as it results in a more efficient market for all participants.” Subsequently, it guaranteed that all participants, including market makers, “are treated equally.”

This is yet another problem that the exchange has to cope with. The war the US SEC waged on the cryptocurrency sector has affected Crypto.com, too, which said it will stop serving institutional clients in the States from June 21.

Coinbase’s Case

Rumors spread across the community last September indicated that Coinbase also engaged in proprietary trading.

Individuals, whose identities remained undisclosed, maintained that the exchange hired Wall Street traders in 2021 and established a unit whose purpose was to use the firm’s own funds to trade and stake digital currencies. They added that the division carried out a $100 million transaction to test the operation.

A Coinbase spokesperson disagreed with the allegations, affirming that the group was created to facilitate “client-driven cryptocurrency transactions” and not conduct illegal activities. The company’s CFO – Alesia Haas – also dismissed the claims:

“Coinbase is an agency-only platform. We do not engage in proprietary trading on our platform.”