- BitMEX has announced several changes at the very top of the company following the CFTC charges last week
- The three co-founders have all stepped aside, while another executive has taken a leave of absence
- BitMEX faces a struggle for its very survival and at least its identity
BitMEX has reacted to the multiple charges brought against several of its leadership last week by replacing them. Company owners Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed were indicted last week by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on a number of charges relating to the illegal running of the cryptocurrency exchange, and all three have now stepped back from their duties with the exchange and the holding companies. BitMEX announced the move yesterday, just days after calling the CFTC’s actions “heavy-handed”.
Glimpse Into Muddied Ownership
The BitMEX announcement came via a blog post which revealed as much about the ownership of the exchange as it did the operators. The CFTC highlighted the muddy ownership details of BitMEX as one of the reasons why they investigated it, and indeed the blog post hints at just how complex the ownership situation is, stating that “changes have been made to the leadership of 100x Group, the holding group for HDR Global Trading Limited, owner and operator of the BitMEX platform.”
The post announced the impact that the charges had had on the three co-founders, with all three stepping aside and being replaced:
Founders Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed have stepped back from all executive management responsibilities for their respective CEO and CTO roles with immediate effect. With fellow Founder Ben Delo, they will not hold executive positions in the 100x Group. Additionally, Greg Dwyer will take a leave of absence from his role as Head of Business Development.
The interim CEO was announced as Vivien Khoo, currently the Chief Operating Officer, who has the unenviable task of digging the exchange out of the mess it finds itself in, with user retention being a key priority.
BitMEX Faces Fight For its Future
BitMEX was until recently the most popular Bitcoin leverage trading platform around, but this was largely because they didn’t ask users to complete any Know Your Customer (KYC) documentation as well as its three-figure leverage.
The exchange announced that it would be asking users to comply with KYC in August, which resulted in millions of dollars in Bitcoin leaving the platform.
