BitMEX Operator Appoints PwC Partner as Chief Financial Officer

100x, the owner of the BitMEX cryptocurrency trading platform, has hired auditing veteran Stephan Lutz as its new chief financial officer.

• According to an announcement Thursday, Lutz will join the group in May to take charge of financial growth, business expansion and profitability.
• The new hire brings to the firm nearly a decade of experience as partner at auditing and consultancy giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), as well as time advising financial corporations at PwC Europe and PWC Germany before that.
• "[Lutz] joins at precisely the right time for us in our evolution as a company as we enhance the BitMEX platform and look to expand our capabilities further in 2021,” said 100x Group CEO Alex Höptner.
• The addition is the latest in the aftermath of recent legal troubles for the firm and follows the hiring of 100x's first chief compliance officer.
• In October 2020, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and federal prosecutors charged BitMEX with facilitating unregistered trading and other violations.
• As reported by CoinDesk Wednesday, BitMEX founder and former CEO Arthur Hayes, who is currently in Singapore, could surrender to U.S. authorities next month.

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