Crypto Critic Roubini Escalates His Campaign Against BitMEX’s Hayes

The notorious cryptocurrency critic, Nouriel Roubini, escalated his debate with the BitMEX’s CEO, Arthur Hayes, adding that Hayes’s exchange “may be openly involved in systematic illegality,” Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

According to Roubini, a 60-year old American Economist, BitMEX lets traders take many risks on its platform by allowing them to leverage bets up to 100 times the amount of money they put down.

While citing a Medium post, which noted that “liquidations may, at times, account for a significant share of BitMEX’s revenue,” Roubini said the exchange “skirts” rules meant to combat money laundering, as the post further claims that BitMEX trade against clients.

Hayes commented that despite Roubini is entitled to his opinions; his words are, however, withering.

The Seychelles-based crypto derivatives trading platform “provides safe, fast, professional and liquid ways for those who see the potential of crypto and to trade and hedge cryptocurrency risk,” Hayes said.

It is hardly the only cryptocurrency exchange to provide traders 100 times leverage. BitMEX does not earn any revenue when traders are liquidated, and it doesn’t trade against clients, Hayes added.

“At a minimum, Hayes and all of the others overseeing similar rackets from offshore safe havens should be investigated, before millions more retail Investors get scammed into financial ruin,” Roubini said.

Their debate was triggered amid the increased skepticism of crypto ventures in Washington. The exchanges are allegedly offering fake trading volume or not stopping the pump-and-dump schemes among traders.

BitMEX will continue to check on all legal and regulatory developments and comply with such regulations, Hayes said, pointing that he refuses to accept any “allegation of criminality, manipulation or unfair treatment of customers.”

The post today extends the Roubini-Hayes debate nicknamed “Tangle in Taipei,” which took place at the Asia Blockchain Summit in Taiwan.

Nouriel Roubini’s opposition has gone too far in defining Bitcoin and the crypto-related industry as a total scam and worst of bubbles. Roubini so much dislikes BitMEX’s CEO to the extent that he called Arthur Hayes, a drug-pusher businessman in a Twitter post.