Crypto firm claiming $1.4B in trades on CMC flashes reportedly fake license data
A number of cryptocurrency platforms reporting billions of dollars in daily trades on CoinMarketCap appear to have been misleading their customers about holding certain crypto licenses, an investigation by Cointelegraph has found.
Bitspay, a crypto exchange that reports a $1.4 billion daily trading volume on CoinMarketCap, claimed it held a license in Estonia, and is regulated under Estonian law. However, after Cointelegraph reached out with questions about this license, the company swiftly erased its reportedly fake license data.
At the time of writing, Bitspay is the fourth-largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume on CoinMarketCap, following platforms like Binance, BitForex and Topcredit International.
According to Bitspay’s page on CoinMarketCap, it is a centralized exchange (CEX) based in Estonia. The exchange was launched in 2020 and claims to be regulated under the Estonian “Anti Money Laundering Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2019,” which appears to be referring to the country’s Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act.
Bitspay also claimed it was licensed and regulated by Estonia’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). “Bitspay Limited registered with the registration number FVR000796, under the Laws of the Republic of Estonia,” the firm stated on one of its domains, Bitspay.io, until it erased the information immediately following Cointelegraph’s inquiries.
Contacted by Cointelegraph, Estonia’s FIU reported that Bitspay didn’t hold any valid license in Estonia. “We took a look into it, and it seems that the license number which they have previously announced refers to an Estonian company, Globe Assets OÜ,” a spokesperson for the FIU said in a statement on Sept. 21. The license was also valid for less than a year, from March 2019 until January 2020, the representative noted.
The FIU didn’t respond to additional questions about Bitspay’s legal status in Estonia.
Bitspay was showing its website visitors information on the license mentioned above until at least Sept. 18, 2023. The firm subsequently rebranded its website from the briefly unavailable Bitspay.io to Bitspay.global on Sept. 21, removing all data about being registered or regulated in Estonia.
At the time of writing, Bitspay has not provided any information about its registration or license status on its new website. The exchange also claims on its website that its daily trading volume amounts to 65,249 Bitcoin (BTC), or $1.7 billion. However, the exchange appears only to have around 400 followers on X (formerly Twitter) and some 16,000 members on its Telegram channel.
Kelly Nova, who is said to be the founder and CEO of Bitspay, told Cointelegraph that the exchange is working on licenses in both Estonia and the United Kingdom. “We have some copyright issues, and that’s why we closed the Bitspay.io domain,” he said. The exec didn’t respond to Cointelegraph’s request for further information about Bitspay founders or why the firm previously claimed to have a license in Estonia on its website.
Bitspay appears to be far from the only platform reporting massive trading volumes on CoinMarketCap despite little being known about its licenses, founders or background. Exchanges like Topcredit, which reports $1.8 billion in daily trading volume on CoinMarketCap, and Bika, which reports $1.2 billion, have been unwilling to talk to Cointelegraph about their background and founders.
“We have long been aware that self-reported data can be problematic, but APIs are the only viable source for data collection,” a spokesperson for CoinMarketCap told Cointelegraph.
The representative also referred to the website’s scoring system, pointing out that platforms like Bitspay, Topcredit or Bika have a significantly lower score than major exchanges like Binance, which has owned CoinMarketCap since April 2020. “We always encourage our users to perform their own due diligence, especially with low-scoring exchanges,” the spokesperson said, adding:
“We know our data isn’t infallible. Our role is as an objective and comprehensive information aggregator, not a regulator. […] In short, CMC numbers are as credible as they can be, using our industry leading experience, technology, verification methodology and feedback loops […]”
The spokesperson cited the crypto adage “don’t trust, verify” and said it embodies a foundational principle of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
Related: Hong Kong to list ‘suspicious’ crypto platforms in wake of JPEX scandal
According to a public announcement, Bitspay was listed on CoinMarketCap in July 2023. CoinMarketCap’s primary rival, CoinGecko, hasn’t listed this website, nor has it listed Topcredit or Bika. Despite this discrepancy, CoinGecko has significantly more spot exchanges listed than CoinMarketCap. At the time of writing, CoinGecko lists a total of 784 exchanges, while CoinMarketCap lists only 225.
Websites like CoinMarketCap have frequently been criticized for providing inflated exchange trading volumes. In 2019, Bitwise Asset Management claimed that 95% of volumes on unregulated exchanges reported on CoinMarketCap were fake or non-economic wash trading in nature. Another investigation by data analytics firm The TIE suggested in 2019 that more than 86% of reported crypto trading volume appeared suspicious.
In a media interview, Chair Paul Atkins pledged to empower businesses to innovate through tokenization.
Politics
Just 25% of public think Sir Keir Starmer will win next election – with welfare row partly to blame
Only a quarter of British adults think Sir Keir Starmer will win the next general election, as the party’s climbdown over welfare cuts affects its standing with the public.
A fresh poll by Ipsos, shared with Sky News, also found 63% do not feel confident the government is running the country competently, similar to levels scored by previous Conservative administrations under Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak in July 2022 and February 2023, respectively.
Politics latest: ‘A moment of intense peril’ for PM
The survey of 1,080 adults aged 18-75 across Great Britain was conducted online between 27 and 30 June 2025, when Labour began making the first of its concessions, suggesting the party’s turmoil over its own benefits overhaul is partly to blame.
The prime minister was forced into an embarrassing climbdown on Tuesday night over his plans to slash welfare spending, after it became apparent he was in danger of losing the vote owing to a rebellion among his own MPs.
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Govt makes last-minute concession on welfare bill
The bill that was put to MPs for a vote was so watered down that the most controversial element – to tighten the eligibility criteria for personal independence payments (PIP) – was put on hold, pending a review into the assessment process by minister Stephen Timms that is due to report back in the autumn.
The government was forced into a U-turn after Labour MPs signalled publicly and privately that the previous concession made at the weekend to protect existing claimants from the new rules would not be enough.
While the bill passed its first parliamentary hurdle last night, with a majority of 75, 49 Labour MPs still voted against it – the largest rebellion in a prime minister’s first year in office since 47 MPs voted against Tony Blair’s Lone Parent benefit in 1997, according to Professor Phil Cowley from Queen Mary University.
It left MPs to vote on only one element of the original plan – the cut to Universal Credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.
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Govt makes last-minute concession on welfare bill
An amendment brought by Labour MP Rachael Maskell, which aimed to prevent the bill progressing to the next stage, was defeated but 44 Labour MPs voted for it.
The incident has raised questions about Sir Keir’s authority just a year after the general election delivered him the first Labour landslide victory in decades.
Read more:
How did your MP vote on Labour’s welfare bill?
The PM faced down his party on welfare and lost
And on Wednesday, Downing Street insisted Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, was “not going anywhere” after her tearful appearance in the House of Commons during prime minister’s questions sparked speculation about her political future.
The Ipsos poll also found that two-thirds of British adults are not confident Labour has the right plans to change the way the benefits system works in the UK, including nearly half of 2024 Labour voters.
Keiran Pedley, director of UK Politics at Ipsos, said: “Labour rows over welfare reform haven’t just harmed the public’s view on whether they can make the right changes in that policy area, they are raising wider questions about their ability to govern too.
“The public is starting to doubt Labour’s ability to govern competently and seriously at the same levels they did with Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak’s governments. Labour will hope that this government doesn’t end up going the same way.”
It is hard to think of a PMQs like it – it was a painful watch.
The prime minister battled on, his tone assured, even if his actual words were not always convincing.
But it was the chancellor next to him that attracted the most attention.
Rachel Reeves looked visibly upset.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves (right) crying as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaks. Pic: Commons/UK Parliament/PA
It is hard to know for sure right now what was going on behind the scenes, the reasons – predictable or otherwise – why she appeared to be emotional, but it was noticeable and it was difficult to watch.
Reeves looks visibly upset as Starmer defends welfare U-turn – politics latest
Her spokesperson says it was a personal matter that they will not be getting into.
Even Kemi Badenoch, not usually the most nimble PMQs performer, singled her out. “She looks absolutely miserable,” she said.
Anyone wondering if Kemi Badenoch can kick a dog when it’s down has their answer today.
The Tory leader asked the PM if he could guarantee his chancellor’s future: he could not. “She has delivered, and we are grateful for it,” Sir Keir said, almost sounding like he was speaking in the past tense.
Rachel Reeves looked visibly upset behind Keir Starmer at PMQs. Pic PA
It is important to say: Rachel Reeves’s face during one PMQs session is not enough to tell us everything, or even anything, we need to know.
But given the government has just faced its most bruising week yet, it was hard not to speculate. The prime minister’s spokesperson has said since PMQs that the chancellor has not offered her resignation and is not going anywhere.
But Rachel Reeves has surely seen an omen of the impossible decisions ahead.
How will she plug the estimated £5.5bn hole left by the welfare climbdown in the nation’s finances? Will she need to tweak her iron clad fiscal rules? Will she come back for more tax rises? What message does all of this send to the markets?
If a picture tells us a thousand words, Rachel Reeves’s face will surely be blazoned on the front pages tomorrow as a warning that no U-turn goes unpunished.
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