Merely days after scrapping plans to acquire German bank Bankhaus von der Heydt, popular cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX has laid off almost a quarter of its global workforce.
According to those acquainted with the situation, the firm now employs around 300 workers, which means the layoffs will hit about 75 people. The move was announced to the BitMEX staff only last week.
A BitMEX spokesperson commented “BitMEX is making changes to our workforce in order to streamline for the next phase of our business. Our top priority is to make sure all employees who will be impacted have the support they require.”
Just in February Arthur Hayes and Benjamin Delo, co-founders of BitMEX, pleaded guilty to violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act in federal court. They were accused of failing to put in place and maintain appropriate compliance programs to identify customers (or KYC program) and prevent money laundering.
Then in March third founder Samuel Reed was found guilty for breaching U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) rules by the U.S. DOJ. All three of them agreed to pay fines of $10 million each.
Former CEO Hayes, who stepped down in October 2020, had a hand in the downsizing, according to one source familiar with the reforms at BitMEX. The source added, “Arthur is taking a more active role in the company to effectively throw out what they have been planning and scale back everything.”
The new modifications at BitMEX, according to a spokesperson, were undertaken with the support of all the founders. However, there will be no change to the group’s management structure.
BitMEX stated this week that its proposed acquisition of 268-year-old German bank Bankhaus von der Heydt, which it announced in January, had been called off after both parties mutually agreed.
BitMEX would have received a banking license in Germany as part of the acquisition, which is required to provide financial services relating to digital assets. Both parties refused to disclose specifics or explanations for the unsuccessful acquisition.