BitMex Faces $300 Million Lawsuit from Investors

So here we go again with another crypto exchange getting hit with a lawsuit. Looks like Bitmex is in for some tough times ahead. I’m not taking sides, but it seems Arthur Hayes might have overlooked some key details, with early backers now wanting their money back plus some. Curious to see if there’s a written contract involved because that sum is massive and could really affect Bitmex’s future.

Maybe, maybe not. We have zero information about Amato's claims and no way to judge their merit. This could be totally frivolous. The fact that he says the investment "was supposed to later be converted into equity" makes it sound like he didn't cross his Ts or dot his Is. All we know is that Amato is claiming that BitMex "gave him false information." That probably alludes to a buyout under false pretenses. For example, maybe Hayes claimed the platform was closing, or misrepresented its growth to Amato to deter him from realizing the equity. The numbers seem really inflated. Amato is probably just looking for an out-of-court settlement.

Well it also says $50 million but what the hell is $250 for punitive damage? I have to agree that Amato might have inflated the claims here, and my opinion is that the judge won't award that big money to him and I agree with @squatter, this could be very well be settled out of court but we really don't know what the real numbers are. Everyone here is really trying to scam each other,

*$250 million Maybe he feels he's been literally scammed by Arthur Hayes, or just fishing to see how much he can wrangle out of him.

maintaining a physical presence in california seems like such a liability. i just don't understand why bitmex does it. not only are they operating from the USA (re the CFTC, FINCEN, etc) but apparently they are opening themselves up to personal jurisdiction in california state courts. i still reckon they might fight it on jurisdictional grounds. there may be a distinction between bitmex's "established place of business" and whatever satellite office they have in california. that's what it is---a fishing expedition. there's no way in hell he's walking away with $300 million, but the bigger the stated damages, the bigger the payout he'll get when the case settles. that's the rationale, anyway.

SV companies for some reason love to have presence in an area with the highest salaries in the world. Maybe it'd be easier to sell their company one day to a bigger player if they maintain their presence there.

Fishing, mliking whatever we call it. Simply people are using crypto sphere to hassle someone. Yes he already has lots of money, but I'm sure Frank Amato wanted more. Easy $250 million if it goes his way here.

Aren't they the exchange that got sued by the US Government because of them having US traders to illegally trade in their platform since they aren't allowed to do so? The last time I check is that the authorities have found out that they have an office in the US specifically located in San Francisco which they constantly denied of it's existence. So if what Frank Amato is saying is true this just proves more that they indeed have operated in the US illegally since they have a US investor backing them already.

they didn't get sued by the government. the CFTC launched a probe investigating possible misconduct. they haven't officially done anything (like issuing enforcement actions, etc) this is what bloomberg said about it: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-19/u-s-regulator-probing-crypto-exchange-bitmex-over-client-trades

It seems that there are old deals between Arthur Hayes & Frank Amato, and he wants to blackmail the director of BitMex to gain some cash. I think BitMex's legal status is the best as he insists on dealing with official legal channels, a measure that could cost him a lot of money. Amato's main purpose may be to create a media crackle and try to use it to get some compensation from the company. The final settlement may be out of court.

I'm not surprised that there are no developments happening against their first case after all the US Government is known to do massive witch hunts to anyone in the crypto industry. The recent witch hunt they are currently conducting is the DoJ filing a case against Virgil Griffith who apparently went to North Korea to teach them how to avoid sanctions woth the use of crypto and blockchain. The way I see it someone or a group of politicians are just waiting for that massive score just to ruin the crypto industry in the US which I think why this is happening.