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- BitMEX CEO, CTO dismissed with immediate effect
- Despite executive sack, exchange continues operation
Executives of Seychelles based crypto exchange firm, BitMEX have been dismissed following money laundry charges against them.
The BitMEX executive shakeup affected Arthur Hayes, BitMEX CEO, Samuel Reed, the CTO, Greg Dwyer, head of business development, among others.
US vs. BitMEX executives, what happened?
On Thursday, October 1, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) accused BitMEX of laundering money and operating illegally in the US.
BitMEX executives were charged with violating the Bank Secrecy Act and operating an unregistered trading platform. They were accused of purposely failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (AML) program.
CFTC also alleged that BitMEX received over $11 billion in Bitcoin deposits and made more than $1 billion in fees as most of the business the exchange conduct are from the US. This is after the firm backed out of the US market in 2015.
After all these charges, BitMEX was poised to contest charges against them after they said their business was an international business that operated with the highest integrity.
However, things have taken a swing now.
Recent shakeups among BitMEX executives
Things are looking like the CFTC and DoJ are having the upper hand in the fight against BitMEX. The exchange announced changes in their leadership structure on Thursday, one week after they were alleged by the DoJ and CFTC.
Firstly, BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes was removed from being the CEO with immediate effect. Samuel Reed, BitMEX CTO, also got fired from being the firm’s CTO with immediate effect.
Founder of BitMEX parent company, 100x Group, Ben Delo, also ceases from being an executive of the crypto firm.
The chief operating officer of 100x Group, Vivien Khoo, is now interim CEO. Ben Radclyffe, BitMEX commercial director, now handles client relationships and oversight of financial products.
Amidst BitMEX executive issues, exchange forges ahead
After the BitMEX executive shakeup, the firm has continued activities like nothing happened.
Chairman of 100x Group, David Wong, said that the changes are for them to focus their core businesses by giving clients superior trading opportunities through the BitMEX platform.
Wong said that the new leaders are exceptional and well placed to continue the growth of the group and the BitMEX User Verification Programme, which it was charged for under former executives.
