BitMEX is currently facing a $ 300 million lawsuit from commodity derivatives trader Frank Amato. This guy took BitMEX to court after he was stripped of his $ 50 million stakes in BitMEX.
BitMEX lawsuit for $ 300 mln by early investor
Frank Amato was a former JPMorgan trader and early investor at BitMEX. Amato stated that he spent $ 50,000 in BitMEX in the pre-seed funding round in 2015. However, four years later, he didn’t make any profit from his investment.
Since its foundation, BitMEX has become a giant in the cryptocurrency industry due to the explosive growth of cryptocurrencies. Even at the end of June 2019, BitMEX’s annual transaction surpassed $ 1 billion. It is estimated that Amato’s stake is currently worth $ 50 million. However, he was never granted the equity. Amato accused BitMEX of cheating on him and intentionally forgetting his investment.
One Trillion Dollars traded in a year; the stats don’t lie. BitMEX ain’t nothing to fucking with. @Nouriel I’ll see you on Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/Y1GXWsGAHD
— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) June 29, 2019
In addition to reclaiming his $ 50 mln equity, Amato also required punitive concerns to the tune of $ 250 mln. Because of this request, the total value of the lawsuit has increased to $ 300 mln.
The end of the BitMEX era?
BitMEX is currently valued at around $ 1 billion. Back in July 2018, BitMEX was valued at up to $ 3.6 billion based on its annual income. It is estimated that BitMEX earns about $ 700,000 in transaction fees per day.
However, with the emergence of many new exchanges, the proportion of BitMEX trading volume has continuously decreased throughout 2019. That means the company’s valuation has dropped significantly.
Read more:
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- New Data Revealed That The Volume Of Cryptocurrency Exchanges Might Not Correspond To Website Traffic