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One of the world’s largest cryptocurrency futures trading platforms, BitMEX, is facing mounting pressure as charismatic CEO Hayes goes off the grid and rumors circulate its chief operating officer, Angelina Kwan, has quit – what’s next for the company?
Hired to much fanfare last November, Kwan represented a big acquisition for the trading platform. A veteran operator at Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), where she spent eight years as director of enforcement and as a director of supervision of markets, she was hired by Hayes as BitMEX’s COO, to lead on the company’s collaboration efforts.
But after less than a year in the role rumors are abound that she has quit the company, as it faces a series of possible investigations into its operating practices.
US investigation?
Seen as a veteran of the Hong Kong regulatory and compliance environment, Hayes recruited Kwan to help lead the exchange’s efforts to work with watchdogs globally to develop rules and regulations and to help the wider cryptocurrency and digital asset space expand into new markets.
Despite the high-profile move the appointment to BitMEX is conspicuous in its absence from Kwan’s LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelina-a-kwan-26a57a8/?originalSubdomain=hk) profile which lists her detailed career history back to 1994, leading may to speculate that she has now left the business.
As to the reasons why, it’s anyone’s guess, but with increased attention from US regulators such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), it may be that she chose to leave the embattled company to focus on previous ventures.
Recent research has shown that BitMEX has seen huge outflows of bitcoin from its platform in recent months, as investors sense potential trouble with the company and look for alternative trading platforms.
Research from Fork Monitor, found that in July BitMEX processed withdrawals of around 50,000 BTC, or around $500 million based on the asset’s price at the time.
To make matters worse CEO Hayes appears to be making a deliberate attempt to stay out of the picture and away from Twitter.
Mainstream news reports have previously touched on (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-19/u-s-regulator-probing-crypto-exchange-bitmex-over-client-trades) possible heat from the US CFTC.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg featured a story, from unnamed sources, that said the CFTC was investigating BitMEX for an alleged failure to stop US residents using the platform.
The report (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-19/u-s-regulator-probing-crypto-exchange-bitmex-over-client-trades) said: “The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating crypto exchange BitMEX, according to people familiar with the matter.
“The months-long CFTC probe is focused on whether BitMEX broke rules by allowing Americans to trade on the platform, which isn’t registered with the agency.”
Source of article: https://www.bitcoinchinanews.com/bitmex-in-trouble-ceo-arthur-hayes-is-mia-coo-quits/