BitMEX CTO Samuel Reed Bailed On A $5 Million Appearance Bond

BitMEX CTO Samuel reed was released from custody pending trial on the unsecured $5 million appearance bond with $500,000 in cash as we are reading more in today’s latest crypto news.

Reed was charged with violating the Bank Secrecy Act and failure to establish an AML program at the platform while other executives stepped down from their leadership positions. The BitMEX CTO Samuel Reed was arrested a few days ago and presented in federal court in Massachusetts. He attended the court hearing about the indictment for violating the Bank Secrecy Act and failing to implement enough AML controls for the US Customers at the crypto exchange.

Samuel Reed’s unsecured appearance bond that was worth $5 million secured by $500 in cash was approved in two days based on the documents recently retrieved by The block. Half a million dollars will act as a security for the timely appearance in court and this money will be subjected to forfeitures in the event of a no-show. Right after the criminal allegations were made, the executive team at BitMEX stepped down from their positions and their current whereabouts are unknown as none of them reported to the police.

After the fiasco between the United States Commodity and Futures Trading Commission and the exchange which is one of the biggest derivatives platforms, there will be many shifts in the management of the exchange. According to the official announcement, Arthur Hayes will step down as the CEO of 100X

Trade volume and open interest on the BitMEX exchange dropped drastically after the indictment news and now a week later, things don’t look better at all. The BitMEX drama caused Bitcoin’s price to drop and pushed it from $10,900 to $10,400 but the price has fully recovered since.

According to the Defi-focused newsletter The Defiant, the charges against BitMEX by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will only boost the Defi space and will push more crypto projects into decentralization. The Newsletter quoted Jake Chervinsky who is a general counsel at Compound Finance saying that the latest complaints against BitMEX will not apply to all DeFi protocols as “most governance tokens don’t operate a protocol in the way that owners of a centralized exchange company operate a trading platform.”