User:Adjoajo/hayes

Arthur Hayes is an African American banker, entrepreneur, derivative trader, Bitcoin advocate, and a fintech pioneer. He was the CEO, and co-founder of BitMEX along with Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed. BitMEX was founded in 2014, the parent company is HDR Global Trading. Hayes is the former CEO of BitMEX and parent company 100x Group. BitMEX is a digital asset trading platform which has traded trillions of dollars on the cryptocurrency exchange. BitMex is based in Seychelles. Hayes is based in Hong Kong. In October of 2020, Hayes stepped stepped down as CEO of BitMEX.

Background
Hayes was born in 1985 in Detroit, Michigan. He attended Nichols School, a private preparatory school in Buffalo, New York, and graduated in 2004. His family relocated to Buffalo, New York, after searching for a school that they felt would give him the environment to thrive as a student, and as an athlete. Hayes has created scholarships for students so that they can experience the education that he received at Nichols. His mother Barbara Hayes is quoted as saying “Nichols gave him the setting, the stimulation, and at one point, the scholarship to thrive.”

Hayes has a B.S. in economics major and finance from Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Career
He moved to Hong Kong in 2008, to start his investment banking career. He worked for Deutsche Bank, as an equity derivatives trader, and for  Citigroup for five years. He worked as the head ETF market maker for both firms.

In 2011, Hayes left Deutsche Bank, and began working for Delta 1 trader for Citibank in Hong Kong.

Hayes interest in Bitcoin started in 2013, where he read the Satoshi Nakamoto white papers.

Hayes is the youngest African American billionaire in history.

He co-started BitMEX in 2014.

Legal issues in the United States
In July of 2019, Nouriel Roubini made claims to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and United States Department of Justice (DOJ) that BitMEX was involved in illegal activities.

In October of 2020, Hayes along with his co-partners were indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for an illegal operation. The charges by the (DOJ) in the case (United States vs Hayes et al), stating that Hayes and partners refused to register the company in the United States, and that they had 'thousands of US based customers'. Which is a violation of basic compliance standards. An operation DOJ says enabled money laundering activities under the bank security act. The CFTC charges that the illegal operations enabled money laundering activity under the Bank Secrecy Act.

BitMEX is the first crypto exchange to be charged under the bank security act. The laws require that transactions that are over $10,000 must be reported. It is known as Know Your Customer (KYC) data. Hayes stepped down from BitMex in October of 2020. Alexander Hoptner replaced Hayes as CEO of BitMEX. .

United States citizens used Virtual Private Network (VPN accounts) to set up BitMex accounts. Because the BitMEX platform is not registered in the U.S. or Canadian province of Quebec their citizens are prohibited from using the platform. Citizens were able to mask their locations by using (VPN) networks.

Quotes
Mr Hayes is quoted as saying the company he co-founded BitMEX was on ‘the promise that humans for the first time have a choice in how they transact money and a choice between a government central bank-led monitor system and one that’s led by open source software and math’.