One of the earliest and most exuberantly extravagant crypto entrepreneurs, Hayes was behind the BitMEX crypto derivative trading platform until AML failures nearly put him in prison.
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One of the early nine-figure Bitcoiners, Arthur Hayes was known for running a top crypto derivatives platform, BitMEX, as well as his extravagant style, showing up for the Consensus 2018 in a bright orange Lamborghini Huracán.
That was back when "Lambo" was a verb meaning success in crypto and BitMEX brought three of them — admittedly rented — to what was then easily the industry's most important conference.
But his run came to a screeching halt when federal prosecutors and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged him and several other top BitMEX executives of violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement an anti-money laundering program and collect the required personally identifying data from U.S. clients.
While he escaped prison, a six-month home detention sentence and $10 million fine imposed in May 2022 cramped his style, and forced him to step down as CEO of the exchange he founded in 2014.
Now that he's out and able to be a little less cautiously quiet — although not entirely as he's still on probation — Hayes announced in a LInkedIn post on March 3 that he is going to become "more public" about his family office.
However, slightly less cautious about unsetting the Department of Justice still involves announcing that:
"You will see our Head of Investments, Akshat Vaidya at conferences globally. Let's f*** some s*** up!"
That family office — meaning personal investment firm — has already made at least one investment and more will follow.
His goal, Hayes told New York Magazine last month, is to "do my part to infect as many people as possible" with "this virus that is Bitcoin."
He added that he wanted to "hopefully destroy the TradFi system" before pulling back and replacing "destroy" with "give another alternative."
Still, it's worth noting that unlike FTX's now former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Terra's Do Kwon, Hayes never allegedly stole, misappropriated or lost billions of investors dollars.
BitMEX was — and shows every sign that it still is — a strong, safe trading platform that kept its faith with clients.
Which is likely why he never faced the potential of a life in jail, as Bankman-Fried does.
