No legit exchange (from the big exchanges I only
consider Bitstamp, Gemini and Bitflyer to be legitimate) has to switch their bank accounts constantly.
This really comes down to what you see as 'legit'. I'm not making any argument that various governments don't want to force KYC and AML on to the whole of the Bitcoin world and turn it into another arm of the banking system that they can control. This doesn't lead me to the conclusion that they are a scam it leads me to the conclusion the vested interests want rid of them.
I agree that this comes down to the definition of "legit".
However, I think we might already be at a point where Bitcoin is pretty similar to traditional asset classes.
We already have all kinds of derivatives (Swaps, Futures...), margin trading has been available for years and
even obscure altcoins can be shorted using Bitfinex or Bitmex. Bitcoin has long outgrown many of the ideals
that it was based on and this has also lead to many old-time Bitcoiners exiting the community out of frustration.
Especially stuff like ICOs is pretty far from the ideas that the people had in mind, who wanted cryptocurrencies
to become a better system than the current banking system.
What leads me to my negative impression of Bitfinex is not that certain governments want to get rid of
less compliant exchanges like BFX, but rather that they have a history of not delivering on promises and a recent
history of switching bank accouns from one jurisdiction to another on a monthly basis. Legit businesses usually
have long-standing relationships with their banks. Meanwhile criminal organisations have to play
cat-and-mouse games with regulatory entities and banks.
Besides, some of the involved people don´t have a particularly immaculate track record. E.g. I don´t know of
any shenanigans by the people, who run Bitstamp or Bitflyer while certain people from the management of BFX/Tether
have been involved in some pretty shady stuff (e.g. @urwhatuknow was selling pirated copies of Microsoft
software back in the 1990s).
