(Bloomberg) -- BitMEX, the cryptocurrency trading platform that is said to be under investigation by U.S. authorities, lost Chief Operating Officer Angelina Kwan weeks shy of her first anniversary.
Kwan, who previously served as head of regulatory compliance for Hong Kong's bourse operator, is on gardening leave, where a exiting employee is usually not permitted to work. She is leaving the company, according to an outside spokesman. Kwan's departure was first reported by The Block.
Her exit comes as the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigates the Seychelles incorporated crypto exchange that's become wildly popular in Asia for letting people make big bets with little money down.
The CFTC probe is focused on whether BitMEX broke rules by allowing Americans to trade on the platform, which isn't registered with the agency, Bloomberg reported in July citing people familiar with the matter.
The firm, co-founded by former Citigroup Inc. trader Arthur Hayes, allows customers to use as much as 100 times leverage to trade crypto derivatives, and consistently ranks among the world's most active virtual currency venues on CoinMarketCap.com. The firm last month cited regulatory compliance as a reason to start restricting Hong Kong, Bermuda and Seychelles based users from trading on the site.
To contact the reporter on this story: Benjamin Robertson in London at brobertson29@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shelley Robinson at ssmith118@bloomberg.net, Dave Liedtka, Randall Jensen
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