“When an entity holding crypto won’t publish a proof of reserves, we then get to play a fun game of ‘Pull and Pray.’ May the Lord be with you.”
For someone who is credited with inventing the perpetual swap contract, Arthur Hayes has been both derided and celebrated within the crypto community, especially over the past three years. Born in Detroit, Michigan and graduating with a finance degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Hayes forged a commendable career in investment banking. He worked for Deutsche Bank and Citigroup in Hong Kong from 2008 to 2014 and co-founded the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange in 2014, becoming the first African American crypto billionaire before losing it all.
Since its launch, BitMEX has remained a notable cryptocurrency derivatives exchange platform, enabling traders to buy and sell futures and perpetual swaps on a range of crypto assets. Hayes is considered a prime example of a financial whiz kid overhauling the traditional banking system with fintech innovations. However, despite his proficiency in building a platform that has become wildly popular for the leverage it offers regular investors, Hayes came under the receiving end of United States regulators for failing to implement adequate Anti-Money Laundering measures.
In 2019, BitMEX was embroiled in allegations that it was involved in illegal activities, leading to the indictment of Hayes and his co-founders in October 2020. He was sentenced to two years of probation and six months of home detention by a federal courthouse in New York in May 2022. However, Hayes transitioned from someone who willfully subverted the law to a crypto commentator who pulled the curtain back on many of the controversial crypto projects that failed spectacularly in 2022. Known for gaining and losing vast amounts of wealth as well, Hayes is undoubtedly one of the steeliest characters in the crypto world — one who isn’t afraid to answer tough questions.
Hayes spent 2022 rebuilding his reputation after pleading guilty to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act, entertaining his 340,000-plus Twitter followers with his digs at other disgraced founders. However, what sets Hayes apart is his no-holds-barred approach to controversies and his acute sense of what really went down during the collapse of firms like crypto lender Genesis and crypto exchange FTX.
Despite his run-ins with the law that forced him to give up the helm of BitMEX, Hayes remained an influential figure within the crypto world, particularly for inexperienced and new investors who had entered the crypto space over the past couple of years. Hayes often penned down his extensive thoughts on all that went wrong in 2022 and was highly critical of centralized firms within the crypto space that seemingly tried to convince investors that they had decentralized underpinnings.
While Hayes has rewritten his story from a crypto villain to an educator, it was actually his long track record of charitable work that led to his sentencing being limited to two years of probation. At the same time, he continues to engage with his followers in his trademark sarcasm-tinged style of breaking down major crypto events, showing little concern for memes or barbs directed at him by his critics.
Hayes has been outlining his predictions about the future of cryptocurrency through his many lengthy blog posts, including his bet that Hong Kong will emerge as a crucial crypto hub in the Asian region. He believes the next bull market is around the corner, with central banks engaging in yield curve control and reining in inflation, which could trigger massive Bitcoin buying in the year ahead.
