At the BitMEX crypto exchange, the four persons indicted by name by the US judiciary have been removed from their positions in the top management. 100x Group as an enterprise in BitMEX has instead appointed new personnel and hopes to be able to continue business as usual.
One week ago, BitMEX burst into the ongoing business with the news that the founders Samuel Reed, Arthur Hayes and Ben Delo will have to answer to the US court. They are accused of disregarding bank laws, bribery, aiding and abetting money laundering and more. Reed has already been arrested. Now the 100x Group, which owns BitMEX, has responded to the situation and reappointed the top management. In a press release the personnel changes were made public.
Accordingly Vivien Khoo moves for the time being temporarily to the top of BitMEX. She has been working for the 100x Group since 2019 and was previously employed at Goldman Sachs. She will be assisted by Ben Radclyffe, who previously held the role of Commercial Director at BitMEX and will now also be responsible for customer relations and financial products. Whether the founders will leave BitMEX peacefully and whether severance pay will be paid remained open. The wording is that Reed, Delo and Hayes resigned “with immediate effect”. They would no longer fill positions at 100x Group. In addition, the fourth defendant, Greg Dwyer, is taking time off.
Can BitMEX free itself from image damage?
David Wong, as head of 100x Group, stressed that the company now wants to concentrate on the actual business at BitMEX again. He explicitly mentioned the introduction of identity checks at BitMEX, which are to become mandatory by February 2021.
On the other hand, it is known that after the accusations became known, BitMEX customers withdrew capital on a large scale. More than 40,000 Bitcoin (BTC) worth a good $420 million have already been shifted to other wallets and platforms. In absolute terms, BitMEX lost about a quarter of its liquidity.
Now the coming weeks will show whether the personnel changes are sufficient to restore confidence among BitMEX customers. So far, BitMEX has fulfilled all disbursements and even set up additional time windows for this. In a first statement on the investments BitMEX had rejected the accusations and announced defense. At least BitMEX now officially has nothing more to do with those allegedly responsible for illegal business practices. However, this is probably not yet a truly “clean slate”.
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