Prosecutor Thane Rhen noted that the government’s evidence suggested the company and its principals actively encouraged U.S. customers to trade on BitMEX and guided them on how to avoid government controls.
As late as 2023, company co-founder Arthur Hayes called the criminal charges “absurd” in public comments, Rhen said.
“This is what the company actually thinks about U.S. regulatory efforts,” he said. “In public it’s mocking the regulatory efforts. The industry is watching this case.”
In calculating the sentencing guidelines for BitMEX, Judge Koeltl credited a government expert who said the company took in over $1.3 billion of revenue as it flouted U.S. law. The court also credited a government estimate that roughly 11.5% of the company’s users at the time were in the U.S.
But his sentence came in below guidelines that — given the numbers at hand — contemplated a fine of between $231 million and $471 million.
The government had asked for a sentence at the top of those guidelines, but the judge indicated that would be too high given the $110 million in penalties already imposed against the company and its principals.
