BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes resigns

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BitMEX has just announced that CEO Arthur Hayes, CTO Samuel Reed, co-founder Ben Delo, and Head of Business Development Greg Dwyer, have resigned from their roles at BitMEX and BitMex’s holding company, 100x group.

In their absence, Vivien Khoo, Chief Operating Officer of 100x Group, will become Interim CEO, and Ben Radclyffe, the commercial director of 100x Group will be taking on more responsibility to fill the gap that is being left by the individuals who are resigning.

“These changes to our executive leadership mean we can focus on our core business of offering superior trading opportunities for all our clients through the BitMEX platform, whilst maintaining the highest standards of corporate governance,” said 100x Group chairman David Wong. “We have an exceptional senior leadership team who are well-placed to continue the growth and development of the 100x Group, including completion of the BitMEX User Verification Programme. It is business as usual for us and we thank all clients for their continued support.”

The resignation from these executives comes just one week after the CFTC and the DoJ pressed charges against BitMEX and its founders.

BitMEX vs. the CFTC and the DoJ

On October 1st, both the CFTC and the DoJ pressed charges against BitMEX and its founders. The CFTC pressed charges against BitMEX for running an unregistered trading platform and violating anti-money laundering and know-your-customer regulations, while the DOJ pressed charges against BitMEX’s executives, Hayes, Delo, Reed, and Dwyer for violating the Bank Secrecy Act.

On that same day (October 1st), Sam Reed was arrested in Massachusetts, but reports say that Hayes, Delo, and Dwyer remain at large.

Shortly after the news broke regarding BitMEX’s cases with the CFTC and the DoJ, money began leaving the BitMEX exchange in exodus; 24 hours after the news broke, over 40,000 BTC (~$431 million) had been withdrawn from BitMEX.

Since 17:00 UTC yesterday, 41,838 bitcoin has been withdrawn from BitMEX in 4,547 transfers. Half of the transfers were for 0.25 bitcoin or less, and the largest 1% of transfers accounted for 63% of the bitcoin withdrawn. So Many small traders and a few large players withdrew. pic.twitter.com/nxweCwUl42

— Philip Gradwell (@philip_gradwell) October 2, 2020