Arthur Hayes was still under house arrest at the time. Photo: Michaela Martin
This story may sound familiar: an energetic, highly educated young man worked as a trader for several years before opening a cryptocurrency exchange and quickly becoming a billionaire. He's on TV a lot, slays on Twitter, and has become the face of the rebel industry - an entrepreneurial rebel who can't be ignored, even if you're not a Bitcoin fan. This young king of cryptocurrency. Then, perhaps because of his arrogance, he starts making mistakes. Although he lives abroad, US law enforcement agencies are aware of this. An indictment is drawn up. He negotiates terms for his return to the states and surrenders to federal authorities facing multiple charges. Neither he nor the cryptocurrency industry will ever be the same.
This is not just a unique story of Sam Bankman. It's also the work of Arthur Hayes, who entered the cryptocurrency scene before SBF fell by the wayside and is now set to return to it. The similarities are more than surprising because so much in their lives is different. While Bankman-Fried was an elite white kid, Hayes was a black kid from the Rust Belt. Where Bankman-Fried is an idiot who looks like he sits in front of a computer for 20 hours a day, Hayes is incredibly stylish and handsome. Where Bankman-Fried had success throughout his life, Hayes created his fortune almost at will, impressing everyone but himself. When Hayes founded the exchange known as BitMEX in 2014, no respectable venture capitalist ever gave up or thought he would become the first trillionaire in history. At a time when the whole maneuver seemed to fail, he slept on his friend's couch for months to save money.
Here's the biggest difference: while Bankman-Fride actually (but still allegedly) stole billions of dollars from ordinary people around the world, Hayes was never accused of stealing something that didn't belong to him or lying to his customers. or engage in dishonest practices. "He's definitely one of the good guys in cryptocurrency," says Nick Carter, co-founder of blockchain-based investment firm Castle Island Ventures. "BitMEX has never harmed its customers, never been hacked, and never lost money." If anything, Hayes has become a Bitcoin martyr. "He's not a typical bad actor who embezzled money or stole money or did something really bad," said Daniel Pressler, a partner at private law firm Seward & Kissel, which specializes in cryptocurrencies and financial crimes. "He didn't follow the rule that some thoughts shouldn't exist at all."
Hayes, 37, has his detractors. Economist Nouriel Roubini describes Hayes as the dirtiest player in a dirty industry, including Bankman Fried. (SBF, for its part, has pleaded not guilty.) Hayes poked fun at himself by bribing government officials, standing next to a parking lot of supercars on the streets of New York and mocking the Securities and Exchange Commission on Twitter. The detectives were ordered to come after him. They gathered evidence that Hayes had deliberately violated banking laws by failing to protect against money laundering; viewing the Iranians as agents against US sanctions; And most importantly, allowing Americans to trade on BitMEX without any obligation.
Whether one wants to see Hayes as a white party or a scapegoat, his explanation raises a painful question: Is it a coincidence that a lone black businessman at the top of the crypto game is trapped into doing something he shouldn't be doing? abnormal? among peers? "The optics that 'the only guy in cryptocurrency they're going to send to jail is a black guy' is pretty bad," said one of the industry's most visible figures. delicate case.
On April 6, 2021, Hayes landed at Honolulu Airport and turned himself in to federal agents at the airport. He pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act, paid a $10 million fine and began a six-month house arrest last summer. It was a long period of relative silence for Hayes. He still tweets and blogs about cryptocurrency from time to time, but is careful not to offend the Justice Department or risk a fairly lenient sentence. In the middle of January, Hell flew from America and finally landed in Japan, where he skis six days a week and dreams of his next move.
"We have this virus called Bitcoin, and I want to do everything I can to infect as many people as possible," he said. "We hope to destroy the TradFi system," he said before snapping. (He still has to serve two years of probation without further investigation by the agency.) Don't screw it up. Give people another alternative.
It was interesting to see how interested Hayes was in disrupting old-school finance - the industry that got him started, and the technical know-how that allowed him to build his crypto empire. He said, "You want to spend your life doing something that you think can change some things in the world." "Hopefully I can be on the other side of this and get my 'yes, I was right' and 'yes, I was right.'
I made a bit of money from it too.''
Before he left the United States , possibly forever, I visited Hayes in the apartment where he was serving his time: the snow-white three-bedroom apartment he owned in South Beach. It had a wide balcony overlooking Biscayne Bay and a covered veranda dotted with bougainvillea. The Miami skyline was straight ahead and sailboats glided across the water below. It was 81 degrees outside, but the Hayes home was ten degrees warmer. Having lived in Southeast Asia for more than a decade, he preferred not to use air conditioning.
Hayes, who had just returned from working out her hips in a yin yoga class, didn't get wet. He stood and stretched for most of the phrase, his chest so broad and his shoulders so built and sculpted that it looked as if he were wearing armor. Hayes was allowed to exercise outdoors for several hours each day. tennis rackets and glasses stand at different angles; A bicycle helmet sat on the counter next to an empty American Express platinum card. He liked to buy healthy food and juices at the Pura Vida cafe, where he was sometimes visited by fans, which contributed to the idea that his house arrest was not strict. Hayes has an office at nearby WeWork and is sometimes allowed to dine out, allowing him to negotiate with Miami's growing crypto community. In September, Hayes threw a party at a convention in Singapore, buying drinks from a room while sitting on South Beach. At Christmas, the government allows Hayes to return home to Hong Kong.
Hayes was surprisingly low-key and exuberant at times, given how remarkable his limited life had been. He was afraid that he would be kidnapped. "I'm more concerned about safety in the United States because people here have guns," he said. He described his building's reflecting pool, which sprawls out into the ocean, as a "waste of space" that can't be enjoyed because of all the mosquitoes and gnats. "In Singapore, where he lived before his arrest, they kill parasites," he said enthusiastically. He no longer considered America his home.
To land him in South Beach, Hayes brought some soft toys from his collection of more than a hundred soft dolls that he kept in Asia. You buy them, name them, and put them on your bed to mark milestones. At his house in Miami, I counted a starfish, a fox, an armadillo, a giraffe, an elephant, an octopus, and a python, plus tea with anthropomorphic shit. "Sometimes I have a suitcase full of toys that I travel with," she said.
There is no other man in cryptocurrency than Arthur Hayes, especially as the industry's biggest figures continue to explode theatrically. Hayes' house arrest drew criticism from Three Arrows Capital, led by Su Zhu and Kyle Davis, and FTX, led by Bankman-Freed. He outlived them, but their demise changed the cryptocurrency landscape forever. Distrust arose among many of the surviving players, and the organizers ventured to tame them. "We have destroyed all shortcuts related to cryptocurrency," Hayes said. "Everyone who is being held up as an example of how companies operate is either a bad businessman or a complete fraud. So I think we've almost hit rock bottom."
Hayes vowed he would not hesitate to fill the leadership void. "That's not what cryptocurrency is for," he said. "It shouldn't depend on a very small group of people running the business." But he stepped into the power vacuum in a different way, as a commentator and marketer with an influential blog and Twitter account that any cryptocurrency fan should read. Hayes has written three articles on the FTX crash, including one titled "White Boy" about how SBF is using its innate advantages and social intelligence to get everyone thinking about their cryptocurrency and the future of the West. Head of a financial institution. He continued his criticism on Twitter. "When I need to get my daily dose of veggies I bite into this little soy stuffed animal. It helps my stomach," Hayes tweeted along with an old photo of Bankman-Fred clearly biting paper. “I was disappointed when I took a bite out of SBF. I couldn't put in all my macros because he's fake vegan. This guy is 100 years old. % Harbin.
Hayes has every reason to gloat. At its peak in 2019, BitMEX was valued in the billions and had a dominant market share of $1 trillion in crypto trading. But Bankman-Fried founded FTX that same year, and her platform and other platforms (which offered spot trading and related products) quickly ate up Hayes' business. Finally, BitMEX is heavily dominated by FTX, as is Binance, which is currently the undisputed leader. Today, BitMEX is struggling to break into the top ten derivatives exchanges, according to CoinMarketCap.
It's still a profitable business that makes a small cut of every deal it deals with. "There aren't many opportunities in financial history to own the stock market," Hayes said. "They're basically money printing machines." His wealth ranges from hundreds of millions of dollars to billions depending on the price, and he invests it in different ways. His family's Maelstrom office has invested in 10 to 20 private companies, including a "significant" stake in a robotic sex doll startup. "I really fell in love with what these guys were doing," he said.
He is also active in the markets. He said, "I am a merchant." "If he moves, I'll trade him." Hayes predicts a bull market most of the time until 2026, followed by an economic disaster on a scale not seen since the 1930s. "I think every central bank will price their government bonds in the next 12 to 18 months." And this will lead to another huge cycle of growth of all risky assets, after which we will start a generational crisis. This is my opinion. Hayes laughed in his usual horrifying roar, as if you turned the megaphone too loud.
His sense of opportunity also extends to cryptocurrency, which is recovering from the devastation of FTX. Bitcoin is already up nearly 50 percent since the company's chaotic collapse. "There's always a season for different things," Hayes said. "Sometimes there's a high value season and then a shitcoin season where any piece of dog can go 50x. You want to participate in all parts of the cycle. So yes, I would invest in deep tech and cryptography that decentralizes and really fits the vision of white Satoshi's book, I will be fully invested in shitcoins. Because I believe that I can calculate the market, buy the story and sell when it goes beyond the narrative. Let's see if this is the case in practice."
In August 2004, at the start of his freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania, Hayes began going to the gym every morning at 5:30 a.m. with a new friend. As black students in Wharton's undergraduate business program, they used morning classes to envision their futures. "Our specific goal was to get rich," says Justin Anderson's friend, now a venture capitalist. For Hayes, who grew up in Buffalo and Detroit, the son of an auto worker who divorced at age 11, it was still a fantasy. One morning that month, he and Anderson felt particularly ambitious while waiting for the elevator. "I remember pushing that button and there was silence and then I thought, 'We're going to be billionaires,'" Anderson said. Heck than Mark Zuckerberg."
The way Hayes handled the toughest challenges in Pennsylvania also surprised and inspired some of his black peers. "You don't get where you are as a black professional who doesn't trust you, but that's another level," says Anderson, president of the Wharton Black Student Association. "There are no barriers in Arthur's world. You just do the job. Arthur obviously knew he was black in a predominantly white environment in Pennsylvania, but he never took it for granted." turned to Asia's financial industry.
“People in Buffalo stay in Buffalo. "I didn't want to stay in Buffalo," Hayes told me. The traditional move to Manhattan seemed like a cliché and a strategic mistake: “Why are you doing what everyone else in my class is doing? I'll get the same result as everyone else." In the summer of 2007, after her first year of study, she took an internship at Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong. Hayes describes her arrival as love at first sight, starting with a taxi ride. from the airport, past palm trees, endless shipping containers and green mountains rising above the glittering city skyline." Energy in Hong Kong is out of control, he said. "I wanted to become a part of Chinese history."
At Deutsche Bank, he worked in the equity derivatives sales department, where one of his smaller duties was delivering lunches to executives. "That's all well and good," he said, "but being an enterprising and crafty student, I tried to capitalize on my role as a food expert." “I was betting enough on each order to make several hundred dollars a week. Lest you think I was acting out of my plate, everyone at the table knew what I was doing and tacitly approved of it. The game respects the game."
Hayes was also a tight end, which helped him land his first full-time job after returning to Philadelphia for his senior year. As discussed in another blog post, Deutsche Bank sent recruits to Pennsylvania. "During my interview, I mentioned that I like spending time in Hong Kong," Hayes said. As a test, one of the top recruiters asked him to recommend some local nightclubs. Fast forward, we're all drunk at the Philly House club downtown. Direct, Hayes said. After graduation, he started working again as a dealer in a bank in Hong Kong.
Hayes tested the limits of the city's closed financial culture. "He was always a big guy, even when he was an intern, always pushing forward," says Andrew Goodwin, one of his roommates at the time. "You should have seen her yoga pants." One Friday at work, the department head walked past Hayes' office and asked, "Who's that?" He was wearing a tight pink polo shirt, jeans and light yellow sneakers. Random Friday has been cancelled.
The market crash of 2008 took some of the fun out of the well-paid expat lifestyle, and as the recession dragged on, Hayes began turning his money into gold. It was both an investment and insurance against social unrest. A friend recalled Hayes telling him, "The boatman only takes gold coins."
Hong Kong was full of foreign financial brethren looking for something more exotic than Wall Street, who tended to share the same ideology - a desire to return to the gold standard, a disapproval of capital gains taxes, a belief that central banks would become the scourge of Western countries. Economist. "Hong Kong attracts a lot of hardline liberals because it has low taxes and weak regulation," says a friend of Hayes who brought him to the group. "Socialists Stay in New York".
Needless to say, it's not too late to be on the beat. A moment before the New Year 2013, like June, Citigroup news, July 2013. "There's still a lot of life in this hotel," she said. His First Deal Bester Prinzel's Emu Was Several Thousand Dollars. There is a wealth of advice on modern technology that can be found here or telegraphed. The chief was born in proving, a modern day in a sleepy period, experimenting with crypto-production as well as arbitrary operation, just like banks in the past.
At the time of 2013, the city of Bitcoin was located on the territory of Russia with the city in Hong Kong, which has been under the control of China for the last decade. There is usually a collection of bitcoins with a large number of banks, which are usually sold in the kitesurfing region and are freely accepted at banks in the country's banks. You should come to a car repair shop with black cherry granite in the bottom, bottom, corners and leaves. Есть много людей, которые не смогли жить в городе Гонконге в большом количестве заранее запланированных школ с биткойнами. Нет необходимости покупать чиновники, которые находятся на правой стороне обуви. Их быть не должно.
Выступая ON CNBC в 2018 году, крипто . Фото: CNBC/YouTube
Он до сих пор в гонконге, это легенда , и это не так уж и много, вроде как старо. Гудвин написал ранее: «Мы, вейроятно, снэкомс с почти мифической историей о GEROE, которая циркулирует в криптовалютах». И ни у них, ни у самого младшего из них нет такого , что на кантонском наречии есть "космомар". Не всем удобно принимать небольшое количество лекарств. «В Азиусе много людей, которые не хотят быть честными, потому что это то, что вы решили выбрать. Если у вас самое высокое мнение, что вы думаете о людях и как много вы думаете о том, что вы делаете?» — это нормально, если честно.
Они лучшие друзья со своими семьями. «Криптовалюта — это современная деятельность, которая является городом величия», — считает он. В другой заметке об этом сообщает газета о своих биткойнах как о «насыщении энергией в цирротической форме». Никто не несет ответственности за многие из самых опасных наркотиков в мире, так что вы не большой мальчик. «Потому что, если бы у вас была сильная столица в этом очень активном городе, вы не могли бы контролировать результаты. Я не хочу молчать", - сказала она на это.
В то время такие стартапы, как Coinbase, имеют большую цену, берут монеты, чтобы заработать деньги за ваши деньги. Нет никаких доказательств того, что это исключительный приоритет. В Deutsche Bank и Citi являются одними из самых мощных банков в мире. «Я живу и живу свободно», — радуются они. О не обнаруженной нешевой бержу ДЛЯ исушенных тридеров, которые хотели привнести на биткон мевриване на столе Луль-стрит. Платформа не позволяет использовать монеты Citroen или фиатную валюту; Это то же самое, что и терминал Блумберг. Они одержимы криптоэнтузиастами Беномедело и одновременным ризомом, который запрограммирован. В 2014 году одна из крупнейших компаний BitMEX, сократизированная Bitcoin Trading Exchange, имела большую долю рынка и огромное количество инвесторов. Они заведуют больницей с тремя в ярко раскрашенном ящике, которая представляет собой хорошо налаженную сеть информационных и финансовых компаний.
В практических результатах BitMEX нет существенных изменений. К концу 2015 года детей было много. Справа размер мощности для этой электроники: мощная батарея для электроники; Что, если в списке только одна чашка с/вашим iPhone? Дело и Рид стойко. Наконец, они решили привлечь клиентов на BitMEX, позволив им больше рисковать. Большие деньги в торговле деривативами приходят от использования кредитного плеча — заимствования средств для увеличения ставок, увеличения выигрышей, но также и увеличения убытков. Хейс, Дело и Рид увеличили лимит кредитного плеча BitMEX в 50 раз, что более чем в два раза превышает уровень его конкурентов. Потом они прошли 100 раз. Обозначил BitMEX как место для самых смелых или, возможно, самых безрассудных трейдеров криптовалюты. «Мы сразу же стали прибыльными, — говорит Дело. Сверхвысокое кредитное плечо стало настолько важным для бренда BitMEX, что материнская компания компании сменила название на 100x Group.
Основатели также решили более агрессивно продвигать свою платформу среди энтузиастов. Как однажды сказал Хейс в презентации о BitMEX: «Есть люди, предлагающие аналогичные типы продуктов, но они ориентированы на дегенеративных игроков, розничных трейдеров биткойнов, так почему бы нам не сделать то же самое?» Проблема заключалась в том, что розничные трейдеры не привыкли торговать деривативами; они отправляли сообщения Хейсу с жалобами на то, что их контракты «внезапно исчезли». (Срок их действия истек.) Клиенты часто называли учредителей мошенниками.
Именно тогда у Дело появилась идея, которая стала визитной карточкой BitMEX: что, если бы у него был бессрочный фьючерсный контракт? В мае 2016 года BitMEX представила то, что она назвала бессрочной биржей — 24/7 торговая, постоянно обновляемая производная, которая позволяет легко делать ставки на будущую цену биткойна. «Это оказалось революционным для ликвидности на криптовалютных рынках», — говорит Дариус Сит, основатель сингапурской крипто-торговой фирмы QCP Capital. Как биржа, большая ликвидность означала большую прибыль для BitMEX. Хейс должен был зарабатывать деньги независимо от того, росла цена биткойна или падала, пока люди продолжали торговать.
Через месяц после дебюта Eternal Exchange он встретился со своими коллегами в ресторане димсам в Гонконге, показал газету: Великобритания проголосовала за Brexit, и рынки были в волнении. «Мы разбогатеем, ублюдки!» он крикнул.
Печально известные дебаты с Рубини (слева) в Тайбэе в 2019 году . Фото: BitMEX/YouTube
К 2017 году BitMEX зарабатывала так много денег, что Хейс и его соучредители отклонили инвестиционное предложение от венчурного фонда, который оценил компанию в 600 миллионов долларов. У троих были трудности с привлечением средств, когда была основана BitMEX, поэтому они оставили себе почти весь капитал. В следующем году произошел медвежий рынок биткойнов, но это заставило людей больше торговать на их платформе. Тем летом на BitMEX за один день было проведено транзакций на сумму 8 миллиардов долларов, в результате чего Хейс, Дело и Рид остались с дефицитом в 4 миллиона долларов — абсурдный подвиг. Они сняли офис на 45-м этаже в финансовом районе Гонконга и оборудовали его бильярдом, покером и маджонгом, просторным баром и аудиосистемой марки Lamborghini. У входа в офис установлены два каменных храмовых льва. Настоящим разговором стал аквариум с тремя чернодонными акулами. Его обслуживание стоило более 100 000 долларов в год, и, по словам Дело, оно было настолько тяжелым, что потребовало усиления здания дополнительными опорными колоннами.
Хейса не так уж много бывало в офисе, и, по его словам, отчасти этим излишеством занимались другие. «Я вернулся где-то из отпуска, увидел это на плане и сказал: «Хорошо, как угодно», — сказал он об акулах. Но он стал общественным председателем пеннского братства, и когда он пришел на работу лично, он продвигал культуру товарищества, спонсировал вечеринки и трюки, такие как конкурсы еды. «Он приходил с кучей денег и кучей биг-маков и говорил: «Кто хочет этим заниматься?», — говорит Рид. Во внешнем мире Хейс взял на себя роль посла ренегатского духа BitMEX и криптовалюты в целом. «Всегда была ходячая шутка: он хотел быть трейдером, но из него вышел бы потрясающий продавец», — говорит Гудвин.
В мае 2018 года Хейс отправился в Нью-Йорк на криптоконференцию Consensus и затмил всех перед входом: BitMEX припарковала три Lamborghini за пределами центра города. Хейс назвал это «тактикой партизанского маркетинга» и признал, что это может показаться «немного необычным». Суперкары были арендованы у человека, который даже не позволил команде BitMEX управлять ими, и они получили парковочные талоны на 1000 долларов. «Оглядываясь назад, я бы хотел, чтобы мы не выпускали Lamborghini, потому что никто не шутил», — говорит Рид.
Но трюк соответствовал образу Хейса, который ясно дал понять, что ни перед кем не отвечает. Ходят слухи: Артур всегда побеждает, даже когда никто другой не выигрывает. Хотя это выдумка, мем также начал распространяться: предполагаемый скриншот, на котором Хейс поручает сотруднику «управлять парковками остальных плебеев». Мне нужен новый Феррари». Он сослался на распространенное (хотя и необоснованное) мнение, что Хейс манипулирует рынком и торгует против клиентов. Это, конечно, не разуверило автомобильные мифы. В конце 2018 года он наклеил на бампер машину скорой помощи, которую BitMEX пожертвовала Сейшельским островам: «МОЯ ДРУГАЯ МАШИНА — LAMBORGHINI». Он также купил желтый Ferrari Portofino. Автолюбители считают эту модель спортивным автомобилем для людей, которые не особо заботятся о машинах; Некоторые из ближайшего окружения Хейса насмешливо называли его «котом Феррари». Хейс ненавидел водить машину. «Я не автомобильный парень, — сказал он. «Я сбил две машины на стоянке».
Как и положено мировому магнату, Хейс проделывал свои выходки по всему миру. Несмотря на то, что BitMEX не может легально вести бизнес в США, он вернулся в Нью-Йорк, чтобы провести благотворительное мероприятие в стиле тоги на Cipriani Wall Street с участием шатобриана, лобстера и выступления Рика Росса. В другой раз Хейс отправил одного из своих любимых ди-джеев, Кристиана Смита, из Европы в клуб в Азии, потому что он хотел танцевать под свою любимую музыку.
Хейс держал часть своей жизни в тайне. Многие из его ближайших коллег не знали, что у него есть умственно отсталый брат, пока дело не дошло до суда. Хейс избегал нескольких тем в наших интервью, но его единственное условие заключалось в том, что я не упоминаю имя его жены, на которой он женился в 2018 году. ", говорит мой коллега. Delo deyir: "Artur cəbhəçi, şoumen, PT Barnumdur".
Sirk aktı Hayes 2019-cu ilin yayında "Taypeydə dolaşıq" kimi təqdim olunan səhnəyə çıxanda - tanınmış iqtisadçı və kriptovalyutanın səs tənqidçisi Roubini ilə debatda diqqət çəkdi. Roubini kostyum geyinib, Hayes isə dizlərində deşik olan dar cins şalvar geyinib. Onun özünü təxribat etməsi on dəqiqədən az vaxt aparıb. Moderatorun BitMEX-in nə üçün Seyşel adalarında yerləşdiyini soruşduqda, Hayes dedi ki, şirkətlər “tənzimləndiyi üçün ABŞ hökumətindən əyilməyə və onu aldatmağa” ehtiyac yoxdur. O, davam etdi: “Mən bütün günü Bubba ilə alt çarpayıda oturmaq istəmirdim. Beləliklə, mən bu vəziyyətdən çıxdım”. ABŞ və Seyşel adaları tənzimləyiciləri arasındakı yeganə fərq? "Onlara rüşvət vermək daha baha başa gəlir." Adalar zəncirində nə qədər başa gəlir? "Bir kokos."
Hayes zarafat etdiyini iddia edir; Roubini hələ də hirslənir. “Demək istəyirəm ki, onların hamısı fırıldaqçılardır, lakin heç olmasa, özlərini fırıldaqçı kimi göstərmirlər” dedi. “Bu adam, yox. O dedi: “Mən nə istəsəm, edə bilərəm”. Bu, onun fırıldaqçı olduğunu etiraf etmək səviyyəsidir. Mən heç vaxt belə bir şey görməmişəm, hətta onların hamısının cinayətkar olduğu bu məkanda belə”.
ABŞ-ın yurisdiksiyasından kənarda fəaliyyət göstərdiyini iddia edərək, əslində Amerika maliyyə sistemi ilə qarşılıqlı əlaqədə olan hər hansı bir qurum onun qanunlarına tabe olduğu halda, Hayes tənzimləyicilərdən onu hədəf almağı xahiş edə bilərdi. Bir növ, BitMEX bunu etdi. İnvestor iddiası iddia edirdi ki, Roubini toqquşmasından qısa müddət sonra birjadan kimsə Hayesin gülümsəyən sifətini əks etdirən mem və “SEYŞEL ADALARINA DAİR. QARDAŞ MƏNƏ GƏL.”
Federal araşdırma xəbəri çıxanda müştərilərin platformadan 500 milyon dollar çıxardıqları bildirilir. Ədliyyə Departamenti 2020-ci ilin oktyabrında Hayes, Delo, Reed və onların ilk işçisi Qreqori Dvayeri ittiham etdi. “DC-də tənzimləyicilərin ən çox nifrət etdiyi şey utanmaqdır. Onlara qarşı ittiham irəli sürülməsinin səbəbi, etdiklərinin açıq-aşkar olması idi” deyə Hayes, Delo və Reed-i tandemdə ittiham edən Əmtəə Fyuçers Ticarət Komissiyasının keçmiş rəsmisi deyir. (BitMEX CFTC işini 100 milyon dollar qarşılığında həll etdi, sonradan ixtisar edilsin.) “Sizin Nyu Yorkda Artur Hayes Lamborghini idarə edirdi. DOJ-də Artur Hayesin İrandakı müştərilərlə birbaşa əlaqə saxladığına dair güclü sübutlar var idi. Deməli, orada qanunun nə olduğunu bildiklərini sübut etmək üçün çoxlu tüstü çəkən silahlar var idi, onlar qanuna bilərəkdən məhəl qoymurlar və qanunu pozmaqla fəal məşğul olurlar”.
Hayes CEO vəzifəsindən istefa verdi və bir neçə ay sonra şəxsi təyyarə icarəyə götürdü və köynək geyinmiş halda həbs olunmaq üçün Havay adalarına uçdu. Marşallar təyyarəyə mindilər və onun barmaq izini aldılar və yanaqlarını sildilər. Sonra gülləkeçirməz jiletlərdə olan bir cüt FTB agenti Hayesin qollarını qandalladı və onu məhkəmə binasına apardı və o, günahını etiraf etmədi. On günlük karantindən sonra o, pandemiya zamanı vaxt keçirdiyi Sinqapura qayıdıb. Təcrübə daha pis ola bilərdi. Əslən Viskonsin ştatından olan JavaScript proqramçısı Rid 3 aylıq körpəsi, arvadı və qayınatası ilə Bostonun cənubundakı şəhərətrafı qəsəbədə evdə idi. Səhər saat 6-da ondan çox FTB agenti və polis məmuru əllərində silahla qapını döydülər, sonra onu qonaq otağındakı kresloya qandalladılar. Reed şəhərin mərkəzindəki federal binaya aparıldı və ayaq biləkləri bir-birinə bağlanmış nəmli zirzəmi kamerasında təxminən on saat tək qaldı.
It was likely the threat of prison that persuaded Hayes to change his plea to guilty in February 2022. Federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York told the court that BitMEX was “a tool for money laundering and criminal activity,” conducting more than $200 million in suspicious transactions; it didn't report a single one to the government, as required. In one instance, the government alleged, Hayes unfroze the account of a suspected hacker, allowing them to withdraw bitcoin that was likely stolen. Because the company didn't ask traders for identifying details, prosecutors wrote, “the full scope of criminal conduct on BitMEX will never be known.”
Prosecutors asked the court for “a significant sentence of incarceration” above the guideline recommendation of six months to a year. Hayes struck a remorseful tone, telling the court, “While I have much to be proud of in terms of the accomplishments of BitMEX, I deeply regret that I had a part in this criminal activity.” Hayes's lawyers submitted testimonials from friends, the family dentist, and Mike Novogratz, a former Goldman Sachs partner and hedge-fund manager who now leads Galaxy Investment Partners. “It should not be lost on anyone that Arthur is a young, successful black man in a country and industry that needs more of them,” Novogratz wrote. In May, the judge stuck to the lower bound of the sentencing guidelines and avoided incarceration entirely.
Shit happens. Moved on,” Hayes said when I asked him why he was ready to tell his story. He resisted every time I asked him to expound on his regrets: “If you sit here and just dwell on the past all day, you'll be fucking miserable. And I mean, I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere.”
“I've obviously got a lot of guardrails on what I can say,” he added. To keep him from further irritating the government, Hayes had hired an expensive roster of legal and PR advisers, one of whom monitored all our conversations via Zoom, piping up every time my questions approached “dangerous” territory. Finally, after asking Hayes to talk about a low point in his life — surely there must have been one in the years he spent fighting the government and losing his freedom? — he offered something. “Maybe the least enjoyable thing is sitting in a management meeting and dealing with other people's issues,” he said. “When I go into the office sometimes and I leave my door open — like, Oh, shit, I shouldn't have done that. ” He said that temperamentally he was better suited to being a writer than a CEO.
Hayes knew that when he left the US, he would probably never return. “I don't plan on being back in the US pretty much ever,” he said. “I'm gone.” He listed superficial complaints — jet lag, American food — but it was clear he'd come to despise his home country on a deeper, cultural level.
He has spent the past six weeks in Hokkaido. He prefers to ski alone, in neon-hued gear, enjoying the peace of a solitary chairlift. “I don't know if I have an overarching vision for the future,” he said one morning. “It's just, like, Survive. Don't lose people's bitcoin. ” Hayes insisted he was not enjoying the collapse of FTX and the pall it cast on all of crypto. “I didn't want this to happen,” he said. “This is not an ideal situation for us.” He was also careful not to suggest that FTX overtook BitMEX because of Bankman-Fried's alleged fraud. “We let somebody come into our house and take our money that we should have earned,” he said. “Hiding behind, like, 'Sam was a shady guy; that's why they beat us' — that's not the case. We beat ourselves.”
Reed is more plainly bullish on the possibility that BitMEX could reclaim some of its market share. “Let's call it a comeback, yeah,” he says. Hayes publicly stepped back from the company during his legal battle and says he's now just a board member with no plans to retake the CEO job. (He might not even be allowed to in some jurisdictions.) Behind the scenes, he's still in control, according to people familiar with his moves. “When they pleaded guilty, Arthur moved in extremely bossish,” one of the people says. “It became clear that he just wants BitMEX back — and back like it was in the old days.”
At the moment, though, BitMEX is still on a downward trajectory. It's done two rounds of layoffs in the past year. The CEO appointed to replace Hayes was dismissed in October and is now suing the company in Singapore for wrongful termination; the current CEO is the chief financial officer, Stephan Lutz.
There is one indication that BitMEX has entered a new era: There are no more sharks in the office. While Hayes was dealing with his case, the sharks outgrew their own confinement — a rectangular tank that didn't allow them to swim in a circle. They were in a sorry state, according to someone who saw them, bumping and fighting, leaving bite marks on their flesh. Eventually, one shark killed another shark, and one died of natural causes. BitMEX executives donated the survivor. When I spoke with Hayes, he didn't even know they were gone.