BitMEX COO announces her departure as the firm clashes with the CFTC 🚨 This article is 5 years old...
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BitMEX COO announces her departure as the firm clashes with the CFTC
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Updated: Apr. 6, 2020 at 1:18 am UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
BitMEX, the largest margin trading platform in the cryptocurrency market, is seeing its chief operating officer depart.
COO exits BitMEX
Angelina Kwan, COO of BitMEX, is currently on “gardening leave” as she plans to leave the company, said a spokesperson related to the matter. This term is used to describe the condition in which an employee has resigned and is instructed to stay away from work during the notice period while remaining on the payroll.
Ms. Kwan is a certified public accountant in the United States and Hong Kong. She has an extensive regulatory compliance experience, including eight years, holding senior management, committee and board positions with the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong (SFC), and other multinational companies and financial institutions. Her experience with the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX) as a managing director and head of regulatory compliance made her a perfect fit for BitMEX.
Arthur Hayes, CEO of BitMEX, praised Kwan’s integration into the BitMEX team in October 2018 by stating that:
“Welcoming Angelina to the BitMEX team is a significant milestone not just for our company, but for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. I believe Angelina’s decision to join us is a signal that the global markets are shifting focus to the rapidly-expanding domain of crypto coins.”
Now, due to unknown circumstances, Kwan left the firm weeks before her first anniversary.
Regulatory oversight
Interestingly enough, Angelina Kwan’s departure comes a few months after the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) opened an investigation against BitMEX. The probe is focused on whether the company broke the law by facilitating trades for U.S. customers on the platform over the years. The peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange is currently not registered with the CFTC, which has jurisdiction over futures and other derivatives based on Bitcoin and other virtual currencies.
This is not the first time that BitMEX faces issues with regulators. In August, the firm was sanctioned by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), after multiple complaints claiming that the company’s advertisement “exaggerated the return on the investment,” and “failed to illustrate the risk of the investment.”
It remains to be seen who will replace the compliance veteran and how the firm will be able to defend itself against the ongoing investigation. At the moment, BitMEX’s ”About Us” page has no mention of Angelina Kwan, and her LinkedIn profile does not reflect her short-lived work experience in the cryptocurrency exchange.
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BitMEX
HDR Global Trading Limited owns and operates BitMEX which is a trading platform that offers investors access to the global financial markets using only Bitcoin.
Arthur Hayes, a prominent figure in the world of cryptocurrency, co-founded the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX and served as its CEO until recent events shifted his career trajectory.