CZ Pays Tribute to Arthur Hayes: BitMEX Did Not Survive the Biden Administration's 'Cryptocurrency War', Having Pioneered 100x Leveraged Contracts as Early as 2014

BlockBeats News, July 23rd, Binance founder CZ paid tribute to BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes in a post. It is regrettable to see BitMEX shut down. Some thoughts:

BitMEX was the first to launch 100x leverage cryptocurrency trading back in 2014. Perpetual swaps already existed before that, leading to extremely active trading on Fridays. BitMEX only accepted Bitcoin deposits, supported only one chain, allowed withdrawals only once a day, and required the use of a multisig wallet. These seemingly inconvenient restrictions actually helped them avoid hacking attacks.

After 18 months of legal battles, the four founders finally admitted to violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) a month before trial. Each of them was fined $10 million and put under house arrest. No one was jailed as a result. However, their business ultimately did not survive the "cryptocurrency war" initiated by the Biden administration.

Lastly, BitMEX's liquidation process appears to be orderly, allowing users to withdraw their assets. Salute to Arthur Hayes.