BitMEX CEO responds to Binance’s market maker slip up, offers CZ a “copy/paste” course
Arthur Hayes, the CEO of BitMEX, responded to Changpeng Zhao’s false accusations of a Binance futures market maker attack—satirically. Hayes offered him a “copy/paste” course for 51 percent of his equity, alluding to earlier plagiarism accusations. Zhao replied he’d be happy to buy-in.
CZ’s quick fingers get him in trouble, yet again
The rivalry between two of the biggest crypto derivatives platforms in the world shows no signs of stopping. The CEO of BitMEX, the first exchange to introduce a crypto futures trading platform, Arthur Hayes missed no opportunities to take a jab at their main competitor—Binance.
Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, has been known for his easygoing attitude towards slip ups and mistakes made by his company. But, this time Zhao’s attitude got the best of him when he hastily accused one of Binance’s clients of attacking its futures platform.
In a Twitter post, Zhao said that the attacker as a “well-known” account that attempted to use the sudden price drop in Binance’s Bitcoin futures to turn a profit and liquidate other clients. However, it quickly turned out that the sudden futures price drop wasn’t due to a malicious attack, but was caused by a “bad parameter” set by the client.
Zhao’s lighthearted way of dealing with situations like these wasn’t well-received by the crypto community, with many criticizing him for posting harsh accusations and lacking a fundamental understanding of how futures trading platforms work.
Hayes uses the opportunity to take a jab at CZ
Joining the slew of those criticizing Zhao was Arthur Hayes, the CEO of Binance’s main competitor BitMEX. He took the opportunity to continue his Twitter back-and-forth with him and criticize him for the incident.
In a tweet, Zhao said that no users were affected by the drop in the future’s price thanks to a supposed invention by Binance. The innovation, he explained, was setting off liquidations based on the exchange’s own index price, and not the futures price.
In response to a user who tweeted that liquidations tied to the index price were a long-time staple at BitMEX, Hayes offered to teach Zhao how to run a crypto derivatives platform.
Next time I’m down in Singapore @cz_binance please attend my running a crypto derivatives platform 101. I teach advanced cntl+C cntl+V methods. Price of entry … 51% of your equity. https://t.co/RYGkf4aJih
— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) September 16, 2019
This isn’t the first time a crypto-influencer used the old “Ctrl+c/Ctrl+v” hotkey hook and jab combo. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin used the same insult against Justin Sun when evidence surfaced that a significant portion of the TRON whitepaper was plagiarized from other projects.
Zhao seemed to have appreciated the joke, saying he would be happy to attend any class taught by Hayes in exchange for 49 percent of a venture he runs.
lol, let me book that flight for ya. Happy to attend any class to own 49% of any venture you run.
(I read the tweet again, it was misleading in the way it was written. I didn't mean the index price liquidation is our invention. but anyway… no edit button)
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) September 16, 2019
The jokes were well received by the crypto community, where (mostly) light-hearted insult-slinging between industry heavyweights is a favorite spectator sport among Crypto Twitter.