Several employees and agents of cryptocurrency exchange BKEX have been sentenced to prison by a Chinese court for their involvement in illegal gambling through the platform's contract trading function. The court ruled that BKEX allowed users to place bets using stablecoin USDT and apply high leverage to wager on the price movements of cryptocurrencies, which constituted illegal gambling under Chinese law. BKEX's founder repeatedly changed the company's registration to evade scrutiny until it was dissolved, and later partnered with Lei Le to develop and promote the perpetual contract trading function. The ruling is part of China's ongoing crackdown on cryptocurrency-related activities, which the government considers a threat to financial stability.