Arthur Hayes Steps Down as BitMEX CEO Following Charges
Published
3 Monaten ago
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100x Group COO Vivien Khoo will serve as BitMEX interim CEO. Ben Radclyffe, BitMEX Commercial Director, will have more responsibilities for client relationship handling and oversight of financial products.
Last week, the U.S. government charged the leaders of the crypto exchange and derivative trading platform BitMEX. According to the legal filing, the executives have failed to stop money laundering and operated an unregistered trading platform illegally. Following the charges, Arthur Hayes has stepped down as BitMEX CEO, other leaders shifted roles as well.
According to the BitMEX blog post, founders Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed have stopped all executive management responsibilities for their respective CEO and CTO roles. Other defendants in the case are Ben Delo and Greg Dwyer. The former will no longer hold executive positions in the 100x Group, the parent company of BitMEX. The latter will leave his role as head of business development.
Meanwhile, 100x Group COO Vivien Khoo will serve as BitMEX interim CEO. Further, Ben Radclyffe, BitMEX Commercial Director, will have more responsibilities for client relationship handling and oversight of financial products.
BitMEX stated:
“Our senior leaders within our technology team will continue the day-to-day management of the BitMEX platform, including ongoing efforts to enhance the performance of the platform.”
David Wong, Chairman of 100x Group, commented on the leadership changes:
“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. 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.”
U.S. Government Charges against BitMEX CEO
On October 1, the U.S. Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged BitMEX for illegal trading of crypto derivatives and violating money-laundering rules. As we have reported, the CFTC accused the exchange of running an unregistered trading platform as well as violating anti-money laundering and know-your-customer regulations. As for the DOJ, it filed a criminal indictment against Hayes, Delo, Reed, and Dwyer for allegedly violating the Bank Secrecy Act. According to the institutions, BitMEX also offered swapped on major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC).
In response, BitMEX stated:
“We strongly disagree with the U.S. government’s heavy-handed decision to bring these charges, and intend to defend the allegations vigorously. From our early days as a start-up, we have always sought to comply with applicable U.S. laws, as those laws were understood at the time and based on available guidance.”
As a result of the lawsuits, BitMEX has seen massive withdrawals in recent days. In less than 24-hours after the episode, users withdrew 32,200 Bitcoins (about $339 million at that time). By now, this amount totaled 40,000 Bitcoin.
Notably, BitMEX has said they are still operating as normal. Besides, the exchange has assured that the investors’ funds are safe.
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Daria is an economic student interested in the development of modern technologies. She is eager to know as much as possible about cryptos as she believes they can change our view on finance and the world in general.
In one of the biggest attacks in the DeFi space, hackers exploited the DeFi project Cover Protocol by liquidating nearly 12K COVER coins and injecting an additional supply of 40 quintillion Cover “coins”.
DeFi project COVER staking protocol has recently been the victim of a suspected attack while artificially inflating the COVER token supply. The hackers have reported exploited the Cover protocol with millions of stolen cover tokens amounting to a massive $2 trillion.
Allegedly, the hackers infused an additional supply of over 40 quintillion Cover “coins”. This resulted in the COVER coin price crashing nearly 90%. On Monday, December 28, the COVER token price crashed all the way from $735 to $53, as per the data on CoinGecko.
The hacker – may be an individual or a small group – has taken responsibility for the attack. In a dramatic, the suspected attacker also returned the funds saying “Next time, take care of your own shit”.
Ethereum wallet explorer Nansen also presented some key details of the event. Soon after inflating the token supply in the initial exploit, the attacker liquidated nearly 12K COVER coins on decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch. In a message on the Discord Group, the Cover Protocol noted:
“The Blacksmith farming contract has been exploited to mint infinite $COVER tokens. We have restricted minting access to the farming contract in order to stop the attacker. If you are providing liquidity for $COVER token (uniswap or sushiswap) please remove it immediately.”
The Cover Protocol team said that the issue has only affected the token supply. However, the funds in the “claim/noclaim” pools are still safe.
Exploring a New Cover Protocol Token
Soon after the attack on Monday, Cover Protocol also announced that it is exploring a new Cover token after a snapshot of the LP token holders. In a message on its Twitter handle, the Cover Protocol team noted.
Hello everyone, we are exploring providing a NEW $COVER token through a snapshot before the minting exploit was abused. The 4350 ETH that has been returned by the attacker will also be handled through a snapshot to the LP token holders.We are still investigating. Do NOT buy COVER
Interestingly, soon after getting the alert message, all developers from Yearn Ecosystem came to support the Cover team. The team noted that they “are working with multiple teams and individuals within the Yearn Ecosystem. We will provide updates as they come. We can not thank everyone enough for their help in this unfortunate situation.”
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Bhushan is a FinTech enthusiast and holds a good flair in understanding financial markets. His interest in economics and finance draw his attention towards the new emerging Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency markets. He is continuously in a learning process and keeps himself motivated by sharing his acquired knowledge. In free time he reads thriller fictions novels and sometimes explore his culinary skills.
Altcoin Rally Dimming Bitcoin’s Shine, Polkadot Gains 34% in One Week
Published
1 Stunde ago
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Dezember 29, 2020
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Polkadot (DOT) saw daily gains of 22.5% wrapping up an impressive week with an almost 34% rise in its value.
Bitcoin bullish run looks to have come to a halt amidst an altcoin rally which has seen relatively lower coins put up impressive performances in the past few weeks. Bitcoin dominance is gradually fading as many experts believe the biggest digital coin is backing down as some top altcoin are showing strong “moves” or signals.
Bitcoin hit an all-time high over the weekend, the third time its price has done so in just over 2 months. The price of the biggest digital coin touched $28,400 on December 27, before a lightning drop took it to $27,000 just hours of that incredible feat.
Bitcoin failed to hold onto the $27,000 mark as its price further dropped to $26,000 a day after and is now testing lower levels centered on $26,000 as immediate support. Reports from crypto exchanges revealed BTC/USD trading at lows of $25,830 during the early hours of December 29.
While Bitcoin has seen red over a couple of days, some altcoins are putting up impressive numbers, giving off signals of a strong altcoin rally. Despite XRP’s current issues, the altcoin market is showing glimpses of its glory days as some digital coins are poised to see major gains over the next couple of weeks. Ethereum (ETH) is at the forefront of the rally, with its price climbing above $700for the first time since May 2018.
Polkadot (DOT) also saw daily gains of 22.5% wrapping up an impressive week with an almost 34% rise in its value. The coin is now the seventh-largest token by market cap. Kusama (KSM), a cousin of Polkadot, also saw its price gain 46% last week, pushing its price from $43.1 to $63. The digital token is currently trading at $56 but experts are adamant a breakout above $65 is possible as the token has rebounded off the 20-day exponential moving average ($50.90)
Speaking on the possibility of a long term altcoin rally, analyst Van de Poppe stated that altcoins are next in line to see greens. He added that the next “impulse wave” on Bitcoin next year should be able to take the market to $40,000 or $50,000, but until then, the possibility of a continuance altcoin rally is very much likely.
Although many factors could be in play with regards to the latest Bitcoin price dip, it’s recent fallout with Ripple’s XRP leads the way. Ripple was hit with a lawsuit from the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and subsequently suffered drops that left its price in a pit. XRP, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is now trading at $0.20 as news broke that Coinbase, a major US cryptocurrency exchange has decided to suspend its trading from next month.
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XRP Crashes Below $0.25 as Coinbase Announces XRP Trading Suspension
Published
8 Stunden ago
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Dezember 29, 2020
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Some of the popular crypto exchanges have announced XRP trading suspension following the SEC lawsuit. This is seriously going to hurt XRP investors’ interest over a long period of time.
XRP investors have met with an unfortunate fate. It has been a rocky ride for XRP investors as the cryptocurrency has been heading south after the SEC lawsuit. From its monthly high of $0.66 on December 1st, XRP has reduced to only 1/3rd of the price. At press time, XRP is trading 20% trading at $0.22 with a market cap of $10.3 billion. The latest price crash comes amid crypto exchange Coinbase announcing its plan to suspend XRP trading starting January 19, 2020.
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewar writes that the latest suspension comes amid the SEC lawsuit against Ripple Labs. Also, in the official announcement, Grewar writes:
“We have made the decision to suspend the XRP trading pairs on our platform. Trading will move into limit only starting December 28, 2020 at 2:30 PM PST, and will be fully suspended on Tuesday, January 19, 2021, at 10 a.m. PST. The trading suspension will not affect customers’ access to XRP wallets which will remain available for deposit and withdraw functionality after the trading suspension. We will continue to support XRP on Coinbase Custody and Coinbase Wallet”.
Coinbase joins Bitstamp as one of the top crypto exchanges to suspend XRP trading in recent times. There have been several other exchanges that have announced XRP trading suspension in recent times. Following the Coinbase announcement today, another major crypto exchange Crypto.com also announced its decision to delist the crypto asset.
$XRP will be delisted from the https://t.co/vCNztABJoG App in the U.S. effective Jan 19th, 2021 at 10am UTC.
The Road to XRP Recovery Isn’t an Easy One with Measures by Coinbase and Others
It looks like XRP’s road to recovery ain’t going to be an easy one! Over the last few years, the SEC has conducted a crackdown on several such crypto projects. Speaking to CoinTelegraph, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said:
“SEC and Ripple will have their day in court with due process of law, so we shall not prejudge the case in the court of public opinion. It is of course likely that the case will take up much of Ripple’s attention and resources. […] We hope a clear precedent and framework emerge from these proceedings.”
Furthermore, the SEC has accused Ripple of selling unregistered XRP securities under Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1993. Also, the case will proceed further in the New York Federal Court. Todd Crosland, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange CoinZoom said that the lawsuit will have a long-lasting impact on XRP price.
XRP which has already been a laggard performer over the last two years will continue trading at lower levels even further. While institutional players have been betting big on crypto, they will refrain from having any exposure to XRP.
“Lack of institutional support will hurt liquidity. Institutions will not bet against the SEC, and will be unloading their positions and will avoid taking new positions in XRP until the lawsuit is resolved,” said Crosland.
The only hope for XRP currently is the appointment of new crypto-friendly SEC chairman Elad Roisman. Soon after filing the lawsuit complaint, previous SEC chairman Jay Clayton submitted his resignation. However, we don’t expect things to improve anytime soon.
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Bhushan is a FinTech enthusiast and holds a good flair in understanding financial markets. His interest in economics and finance draw his attention towards the new emerging Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency markets. He is continuously in a learning process and keeps himself motivated by sharing his acquired knowledge. In free time he reads thriller fictions novels and sometimes explore his culinary skills.
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