BitMEX HK Risk Disclosure
This Risk Disclosure Statement provides you with information about some of the risks associated with use of the “BitMEX Hong Kong” Mobile App and other services offered by the Company. The information presented in this Risk Disclosure Statement is not comprehensive and does not reflect all of the risks (or other important factors) you should consider before using the Services. You must make your own independent decision to access or use the Services and should seek any advice that you consider necessary or desirable (including financial and/or legal advice) from independent advisers. Your capital is at risk. Terms not otherwise defined in this Risk Disclosure Statement shall bear the same meanings attributed to them in the Terms of Service.
- A. General trading and financial risks.
- B. Regulatory and Oversight Risk
- C. Cyber Risk
- D. Access risks
A. General trading and financial risks
1. Trading risk
You use the Services at your own risk. There can be no assurance that use of the Services will provide a positive return or profit, that significant losses will not be incurred, or that your objectives will be achieved. It is also important to have sufficient relevant experience when entering into financial contracts and transactions that are not suitable for everyone. You should only fund your wallet and trade with digital assets that you own and can afford to lose. It is possible that you may lose a substantial proportion or all of your capital. As a result, you should carefully consider whether you can afford to bear the risks of loss involved in using these Services.
2. Risks associated with Indices
Some of the Services rely on an Index Price. The methodology for calculation and publication of each Index may mean that it does not track other publicly-reported prices of any underlying asset or basket of assets. The Index and its value may deviate substantially from the publicly reported price or prices of (or of a basket of) any asset(s) from any given price source.
The composition, calculation, and safeguards incorporated within any Index are subject to change at any time without notice in the Company’s sole and absolute discretion.
The Indices may be administered and calculated by the Company or any third party service providers. Index administrators (including the Company) can add, delete or substitute the components of the Indices or make other changes to the methodology of calculating the value of the Index at any time. The modification of the components of the Index may affect its value, as a newly added component may perform significantly worse or better than the component it replaces. The Company may also alter, discontinue or suspend calculation or dissemination of an Index at any time. The Company may take any action in respect of the Indices without regard to the interests of any User. Any change in the methodology used may affect the Index value and may result in a User incurring losses or gains. The Company is not responsible for any direct or consequential losses a User may incur as a result (directly or indirectly) of a change in the Index methodology.
3. Accuracy of information
While the Company endeavours to keep information displayed on the Services as accurate as possible, there is a risk that this may not be correct, complete or updated.
4. Price volatility
The price of digital assets can be highly unpredictable and volatile when compared to other assets such as stocks, bonds and other tradeable instruments. You should not deal in trading digital assets unless you understand their nature and the extent of your exposure to risk. Any spreads or other fees associated with the Contracts may make them more volatile.
5. Liquidity risk
The liquidity of the market for digital assets will depend on, among other things, supply and demand and the commercial and speculative interest in the market for these digital assets. There is a risk that there may be limited volume and liquidity.
6. Deposits
The digital assets that you transfer to the Deposit Address(es) associated with your Account(s) will not be segregated from, and may be commingled with, other client funds; there are no trust, fiduciary, or other custodial arrangements or rights associated with or applicable to the Services and your Account balances (including deposits, any realised profits and/or fees) and you do not have any proprietary claim in respect of any digital assets transferred to the Company or any Account balance. There are no deposit protection schemes that are applicable to the Services and your Account balances are uninsured unless you specifically obtain third party private insurance with respect to them. Your Account balance is at risk of total loss, from, among others things, security breaches (whether in respect of your Account(s) specifically or the Services generally), electronic, technological or systems failures (including book- or record keeping errors), and insolvency or bankruptcy, or equivalent formal proceedings, in respect of the Company.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you use the correct address for any deposit, withdrawal, or transfer, and that the address you use is a valid address for the digital asset that you intend to transfer and that the Company accepts as a deposit. Any inaccuracy in a specified address, or in the digital asset that you attempt to transfer between addresses, may result in total loss of the digital assets concerned.
Any digital assets transferred to or between your Account(s) will only be available for trading or withdrawal purposes when it has been credited to your Account. Digital assets may be credited to your Account after a suggested number of block confirmations in respect of the relevant blockchain, according to our policies and procedures from time to time, and the Company reserves the right to determine in its sole discretion whether to credit any transfer of digital assets to your Account. The period between block confirmations and between any block confirmation and Account credit is variable and depends on a number of factors, including factors that are not within our control. We do not offer any assurance or guarantee in relation to the timeframe for a deposit or transfer to be credited or for a withdrawal to be broadcast and confirmed. For example, deposits, transfers, and/or withdrawals may not be credited or may be delayed if: there are delays, high demand, or technological issues affecting the relevant network; the allocated network fee for the transaction is insufficient to ensure that your transaction is confirmed according to your expectations (any network fee that we may deduct or our recommended network fee for withdrawals is not a recommendation or assurance in respect of the processing time of any transaction(s)); variation in the processing time in our systems, which may be increased by high demand, technological issues or other conditions that impact processing time; if we believe that you are engaged in any suspicious activity or a breach of our Terms of Service.
The protocol underlying a digital asset may change or otherwise cease to operate as expected due to changes made to its underlying technology or changes resulting from an attack. These changes may include, without limitation, a “fork”, a “rollback”, an “airdrop”, or a “bootstrap”. Any such change, or any failure in any applicable protocol, may dilute the value of your digital asset(s) and/or your Positions and may result in total loss. The Company will not support any such change (unless the Company chooses to do so in the Company’s own discretion) and any asset (or other digital token or asset) that you may expect to be distributed or transferred to you in respect of any wallet balance may not be credited to your Account or transferred to you, resulting in a total loss of, without any right to claim or request compensation for, that asset.
B. Regulatory and Oversight Risk
1. General regulatory risk
The regulatory environment concerning cryptocurrencies and other digital assets continues to develop. The application and interpretation of existing laws and regulations are often largely untested and there is a lack of certainty as to how they will be applied. New laws and regulations will be promulgated in the future that apply to blockchain technology and digital assets, and related services providers, and no assurance can be given that any such changes will not adversely affect digital assets generally or the Services. It is not possible to predict how such changes would affect the price and liquidity of digital assets or the Services.
Regulatory actions could negatively impact cryptocurrencies and other digital assets in various ways, including, for purposes of illustration only, through a determination (with retrospective or prospective effect) that digital assets are regulated financial instruments requiring registration or licensing in certain jurisdictions. The Company may have to limit the availability of certain cryptocurrencies or digital assets or disallow Users based on their citizenship, residence or location from engaging in any transactions on the Mobile App if doing so becomes commercially unsustainable or legally prohibited, which could materially affect the price and liquidity of digital assets.
You understand that ultimately it is your responsibility to make sure that you comply with any and all local regulations, directives, restrictions and laws in your place(s) of residence before using our Services. We strictly state that we do not permit the use of our Services by Users from a jurisdiction in which the use of our Services is not permitted (including, without limitation, Restricted Jurisdictions). We are not offering or soliciting the use of our Services to any person located in any Restricted Jurisdiction or any other jurisdiction in which the specific use of our Services is not authorised or is otherwise prohibited by local laws.
C. Cyber Risk
1. Risks relating to cybersecurity
Malicious individuals, groups or organisations may attempt to interfere with the Mobile App in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to, malware attacks, denial of service attacks, coordinated attacks, account takeovers and submitting fake transactions (including spoofing) which could negatively affect the operation of the Mobile App and the availability of the Services. With the increased use of technologies and the dependence on computer systems to perform necessary business functions, digital assets and the Services are susceptible to operational and information security risks. In general, cyber incidents can result from deliberate attacks or unintentional events. Cyberattacks include but are not limited to gaining unauthorized access to digital systems for purposes of misappropriating assets or sensitive information, corrupting data, or causing operational disruption. Cyberattacks may also be carried out in a manner that does not require gaining unauthorised access, such as causing denial of service attacks on infrastructure. Cyber security failures or breaches of the third party service providers (including, but not limited to, software providers, cloud services providers, index providers, the administrator and transfer agent) could have a negative impact on digital assets and the Services.
It is your responsibility to ensure (i) that your access credentials are kept secure and confidential, including your email, username, and password, as well as access to or use of any two factor authentication hardware, software, or secret and (ii) the security and integrity of any systems (both hardware and software) or services that you use to access the Services.
2. Risks relating to platform downtime and IT maintenance
The Company may, from time to time, perform maintenance on the Mobile App, routine or otherwise. This may lead to platform downtime and lack of access to the Mobile App, potentially resulting in a delay or cancellation of a submitted instruction yet to be processed during maintenance or downtime, and the inability for a User to submit new or change existing instructions.
D. Access risks
There are a series of inherent risks with the use of the mobile-based trading technology such as latency in the prices provided, and other issues that are a result of connectivity (including, without limitation, the use of mobile networks).
The Mobile App utilises public communication network circuits for the transmission of messages. The Group shall not be liable for any and all circumstances in which you experience a delay in price quotation or an inability to trade caused by network transmission problems or restrictions or any other problems outside our direct control, which include but are not limited to the strength of the mobile signal, network latency, or any other issues that may arise between you and any internet service provider, phone service provider or any other service provider.
The Mobile App may require Users to download and install updates to the application or to their device’s operating system as such updates are made available. Failure to do so might lead to certain parts of the Services (including trading functions) becoming inaccessible to Users until such an update has been successfully downloaded and installed. Performance issues and security risks may arise if the Mobile App is used on devices with customised or otherwise non-standard operating software or as a result of other software installed on such devices.
