Welcome to Slate Sundays, CryptoSlate’s new weekly feature showcasing in-depth interviews, expert analysis, and thought-provoking op-eds that go beyond the headlines to explore the ideas and voices shaping the future of crypto.

Stephan Lutz is the CEO of BitMEX, the industry’s longest-standing crypto futures exchange, dating all the way back to when BTC was still in diapers.

From his swanky Singapore office, a busy skyline of skyscrapers behind him, he smiles confidently through the camera, rolling his eyes only slightly as I ask about his background. “I’ve told it so many times already,” he groans.

I jokingly suggest we switch to the AI version of him for a moment, or that we cover the topic very briefly, but Stephan isn’t a man who does things in brief. Our chat went on for more than an hour. It’s not often that you meet someone who can articulate their thoughts on the GFC, Brexit, crypto derivatives, and memecoins in the same breath.

From the bulge bracket to BitMEX

You might call Stephan something of an overachiever. With a background in business administration, economics, banking, and finance, he cut his teeth as a corporate finance analyst at Dresdener Bank.

He then moved to the consultancy side, scaling Deutsche Börse, Europe’s largest stock exchange operator, before working his way up to partner at PwC. He shares:

“I advised large bulge bracket investment banks during Brexit, the ECB, for example, on certain financial stability matters. I did a lot of work around bank recovery and resolution planning after the great financial crisis, and I was part of one of the teams that said what needed to be liquidated in the end.”

From mopping up the spills of 2008 to providing insights into a Brexit-driven financial climate, Stephan was approached by BitMEX in 2020, which he says:

“Led to a situation that no one had seen coming apart from me.”

With his blue-chip background in consultancy and finance, not even a crypto-native firm like BitMEX knew how fascinated Stephan was by blockchain technology, having become enchanted by its possibilities very early on at Deutsche Börse.

In 2010, he couldn’t see it replacing the Börse’s high-speed securities booking infrastructure with its five transactions per second speed, but he knew it was the future.

“I always followed the crypto industry, more so on the technology side, and the underlying real-world use cases for that. So, when BitMEX asked in 2020, it was like, finally, I can get my hands “dirty” with something that I’m interested in! It took me three days to accept the job without even negotiating the salary, and people said, ‘You’re head of capital markets at one of the biggest audit and advisory firms in the world. What are you doing?!’”

He smiles, with a wicked glint in his eye. Stephan doesn’t strike me as a person who cares too much about what other people think; despite the incredulity of his peers, he ran toward BitMEX with open arms:

“They asked me specifically because of my background, a regulation/compliance/audit guy, helping with adding credibility. Of course, I have all of this, but I was always a rebel, and I always liked to do things differently. They thought they hired a very risk-averse guy, and in the end, I’m actually rather the opposite.”

The OG crypto derivatives exchange

BitMEX is the industry’s “OG” derivatives exchange, founded in 2014, and while its trading volume is 80% institutional, it remains the playground of individual traders: around 80% of its half a million or so users are retail accounts. Stephan says:

“We are strong in crypto derivatives, and especially Bitcoin-denominated crypto derivatives. We are the OG brand, the original.”

10 years of operations in most industries is just a trifle, but in crypto, it equates to decades. BitMEX was built on the ashes of Mt. Gox and has survived, arguably, thrived throughout many a bump in the road. I ask Stephan how BitMEX continues to compete in a now crowded market. He reflects for a moment before replying:

“Let me give you an example of what we are not. We don’t operate a launchpad like many Asian exchanges, because that means you need to have new projects flowing in, and then you sell them. It’s a marketing tool. You have a spot exchange next to it. We don’t do this. We look at top coins, or top pairs, or top contracts. 10 assets make up 99% of our volumes. Why? Because we provide derivatives, futures, and perpetual swaps. That’s it. ”

While he’s proud of the fact that BitMEX is open to everyone, he’s quick to emphasize that he would never recommend his mom or kids to onboard with BitMEX if it were the first thing they wanted to do in crypto.

“I would say, no, no, no, no, don’t do this, because you need to have a certain level of education and experience.”

Yet, in the spirit of live and let live, if someone wants to take a risk, they should be able to do it without being mollycuddled or gatekept:

“I think we live in a free world, and it should be a free world.”

Of course, he highlights BitMEX’s role in user education and the plentiful resources the exchange puts out to ensure that traders are taking an informed risk.

“We are totally transparent. Even our technical documentation is publicly available. We give BitMEX Alpha out regularly, the crypto traders’ digest, and we do other courses… I mean, if you close your eyes, we can’t do anything about it, but if you’re going in with eyes wide open, you know what you’re going to do.”

Built on the rubble of Mt. Gox

Launching on the debris of Mt. Gox, which saw 142,000 BTC drained from its users, BitMEX has always been security-conscious. It’s one of the few exchanges in crypto that has never been hacked as a result.

Since the crypto winter of 2022, when “the shit hit the fan,” and FTX blew up, dragging half the industry with it, Stephan says BitMEX overhauled its entire frontend and backend infrastructure and processes to put “more focus on risk management.” He laughs:

“Despite everything you read about it, BitMEX is one of the most conservative crypto places on this planet. Why? Because we do just a few things. Number one, we have always been very focused on derivatives for professionals, and number two, we have full segregation of assets.”

In a business terrain fraught with landmines at every turn, BitMEX has never compromised on customer fund security. All assets are secured via secure multi-party computation (MPC), and all transfers are protected by transaction rules that assure any attack is blocked at a policy level.

“Our funds and customer funds have never been commingled. Our engine checks on a second-by-second basis. If all positions don’t add up to zero, the engine stops, and we investigate.”

I confess to Stephan that my memories of BitMEX go back to the cowboy days of retail traders getting rekt, and Crypto Twitter baying for BitMEX’s blood. The company has come a long way since then. He pauses:

“To this cowboy, “Wild West” thing, we could have done more in terms of educating people, but we have even been sued for market manipulation, and all those have been proven wrong in court, officially. All of those legal cases have gone away by now. We have fought them all through. The evidence was clear. The engine worked as intended. If I put in an order that’s using up 100% of my collateral, and the market moves against me, then I am liquidated. That’s just how it works.”

He says that in the early days, people were new to the concept of futures, and that led to more liquidations. Fast-forward to today, and there has been a sweeping sophistication and institutionalization of the space, just like in traditional finance.

“It was the same in TradFi. All this equity trading became retail in the 80s, right? I mean, all this Wolf of Wall Street stuff. In the 10 years we have been in crypto, I would say, in terms of professionalization, we are maybe where the TradFi world was around the early 2000s or so, maybe a little bit earlier.”

Bridging TradFi and crypto with copy trading

BitMEX launched its new copy trading feature earlier this month, which Stephan describes as bridging the worlds of TradFi and crypto. In TradFi, he explains, users have many options to earn a passive income, such as exchange-traded funds, index trackers, and more.

“Why do people love ETFs? I mean, next to, hey, it’s efficient because you pay less fees than for active management. It’s copy trading basically.”

Copy trading enables users to benefit from the experience and success of professional traders and easily replicate their strategies.

“It just means, if Stephan does something, I want to have the same. It’s like in Harry and Sally, with the restaurant scene, I want to have the same, and those two, oh, this lady, right?” Why is that good? If you have traders who are good, and you open this up, there are two things. The copy followers actually learn something, because they will see what is traded when, and it’s like a passive investment. I just follow the lead of someone else.”

BitMEX’s copy trade feature enables users to emulate multiple traders at once, to not “put all your eggs in one basket,” and the call can be reversed as well: if you find a trader whose strategy you disagree with, you can set up your preferences to do exactly the opposite.

“So if a trader buys, for example, Ethereum, I sell Ethereum, and the other way around, and then you can calibrate by saying, I copy it by 100%, I copy it by, let’s say, something between 0 and 100%. So, calibrating your risk level. You really can pick and choose what is good for your risk level.”

Genius acts, institutional plays, and BitMEX’s next moves

As an Asia-based exchange, BitMEX has never catered to U.S. traders, but with a changing of the guard at the White House and a relaxation of rules surrounding crypto, is that likely to change in the future? What does Stephan think of the Trump administration and the latest moves to come out of Washington? He pauses for a moment before replying:

“I think the GENIUS Act was genius. They basically turned a competitive disaster, relative disaster, into a competitive advantage within a couple of days.”

So, is BitMEX actively exploring the U.S. market, then? He laughs:

“It depends on what you mean by ‘actively’. We are actively exploring what we would need to do to re-enter the U.S., which is, it would cost us the better part of 18 and 24 months to do that in a valid way, because you need to be on the ground, we are not.

You need to then start with the right license, and go state by state, it takes time… So we are looking at this, but don’t expect us to open up a BitMEX office in the next half year.”

What else is on the cards for BitMEX for the rest of 2025 and beyond? Stephan says he will be sharing news at TOKEN2049 in October, and I can’t help but wonder if there will be any news of a stateside expansion despite his coy denial.

In other plans, he says, BitMEX will roll out its institutional-grade custody solution, having recently moved its data centers from Dublin to Tokyo in a strategic move to cater to institutional traders. He explains:

“The majority of all the crypto exchanges outside of the U.S. run their data centers in Tokyo. I mean, no one knows that. Why it’s an institutional thing for the market makers in particular, it makes hedging between venues easier. It’s not creating new issues to trade, but we enhance efficiency for our institutional customers through this capital efficiency, so they need to deploy less capital.”

Standing on the shoulders of giants

We’ve gone way over time, and the sky behind Stephan is dusky and tinged with pink, but as we wrap up the interview, I have one more question. I’m dying to know what it’s like to follow in the footsteps of such an outspoken CEO, like Arthur Hayes.

He pauses for the longest time since we’ve been recording, and I fleetingly wonder if I’ve lost audio, before he carefully says:

“It’s good, it’s an honor, and it’s difficult.”

He says the “legacy is great,” and the name opens doors for him; even when he was a partner at PwC, he didn’t receive so much enthusiasm for getting in a room with him.

“When I was at PwC, and I called someone to pitch for my idea for a consulting project or whatever, it was like, hey, I’m Stephan, I’m the capital markets leader at PwC in Europe, and would you have time for me? And the answer never was a no. It might be, I only have time in eight weeks from now, which is a semi-no.”

He doesn’t have that problem now, but admits that it’s challenging at times because being the co-owner and CEO of a firm is not the same as being a CEO only. He can’t always execute as fast as he would like to or as decisively as his predecessor. Still, he smiles, he’ll take it anyway.

“The privilege is I can go to basically any person in this industry and say, ‘Can we have a chat?’ And usually I get one, which is a big help already in driving the business. I would say this is the privilege I was handed over.”

Mentioned in this article

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes is unloading his altcoin positions, believing that the crypto market will witness a correction this month.

In a new post on the social media platform X, blockchain tracking firm Lookonchain spotted Hayes selling millions of dollars worth of Ethereum (ETH) as well as the memecoin Pepe (PEPE) and the stablecoin-focused project Ethena (ENA).

“Arthur Hayes sold 2,373 ETH ($8.32 million), 7.76M ENA ($4.62 million) and 38.86 billion PEPE( $414,700)…”

The crypto veteran says he’s selling his altcoins because he believes that Q3 will be a period of sluggish economic growth. Hayes believes monetary policies are not loose enough to stimulate the economy, especially with Trump’s tariffs on the horizon.

According to Hayes, macroconditions are ripe to trigger significant retracements for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum.

“Why? US Tariff bill coming due in 3Q … at least the market believes that after NFP (non-farm payroll) print. No major economy is creating enough credit fast enough to boost nominal GDP. So BTC tests $100,000, ETH tests $3,000.”

Despite his short-term bearish stance on crypto, Hayes believes that the asset class is still in a strong uptrend

Late last month, he unveiled his year-end price targets for Bitcoin and Ethereum.

“My year-end targets:

Bitcoin = $250,000.

Ether = $10,000.”

At time of writing, Bitcoin is trading for $113,197, while ETH is worth $3,420.

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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Arthur Hayes is once again sounding the alarm on a greater shakeup in the crypto market after worse-than-expected data from the U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP) jobs report sparked downside volatility in both traditional and digital markets. Despite his reputation as a long-term crypto bull, Hayes has recently moved assets and cash, preparing for further volatility ahead.

Hayes’ prediction comes as Bitcoin hovers in a turbulent range after a sharp June and July rally that saw the coin blast through $120,000 before encountering resistance and correcting down to below $114,000 in early August.

Hayes, a long-time advocate of Bitcoin’s macro potential, is now warning that short-term headwinds could push BTC below $100,000 and ETH below $3,000 in the aftermath of the latest jobs report, a number that fell well short of expectations and wiped $1.1 trillion from the stock market.

Risk assets sell off as Schiff reinforces ‘Bitcoin is not digital gold’

The crux of Arthur Hayes’ argument is rooted in macro liquidity. In his recent comment, he points to the spike in market volatility following the weaker-than-expected NFP, with risk assets selling off hard as traders rush to reprice interest rate expectations and the path ahead for Federal Reserve policy. For the crypto market, this unfolding reset spells trouble in the short term.

Bitcoin led the crypto downturn but managed to show relative strength compared to altcoins, which were hit even harder. Hayes points out that liquidity is being drained from markets as traders brace for further turbulence. Forced liquidations and margin calls are accelerating the move lower, with $172 million in Bitcoin long positions wiped out across exchanges in a 24-hour window as prices stumbled.

Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff wasted no opportunity to dunk on the number-one digital asset while praising the virtues of gold, commenting:

“Days like today make it clear that Bitcoin is not digital gold. We got bad economic news that sent gold and the Japanese yen up 2.2% and the euro up 1.5%. The NASDAQ went the other way, falling 2.2%. Bitcoin tanked 3%, tracking high-risk assets lower, not safe havens higher.”

Arthur Hayes is repositioning his assets

In the early hours of August 2, Hayes offloaded 2,373 ETH ($8.32 million), 7.76 million ENA ($4.62 million), and 38.86 billion PEPE ($414,700), causing a flurry of comments among the crypto community, most notably, Ethereum bulls who pointed out that Hayes had only recently been advocating for a $10K ETH. One follower commented:

“Classic Arthur shilling and dumping at the same time. Never fails.”

Hayes has been right before, predicting a BTC drop to $70,000 earlier in the current cycle when optimism and leverage were at fever pitch.

In April 2024, as Bitcoin scaled all-time highs and market euphoria peaked, Hayes issued a warning that the tides would soon turn, again calling out warning signs in liquidity, U.S. macro data, and the growing risks from overextended leverage in derivatives markets. Despite offloading ETH showing near-term caution, Hayes’ long-term view remains bullish.

Mentioned in this article

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes believes Bitcoin (BTC) is primed for a new all-time high amid the emergence of various catalysts for a bull market.

Hayes tells his 704,300 followers on the social media platform X that US legislation and monetary policy, as well as tensions in the Middle East, are among the reasons he believes will trigger Bitcoin to push higher.

On the US monetary policy, Hayes says the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) exemption for banks is now “progressing.” SLR exemption is a monetary policy tool that allows banks to hold more U.S. Treasury securities without raising their supplementary leverage ratio, a move that boosts their liquidity.

The BitMEX co-founder further says the GENIUS Act, which provides a framework for regulating stablecoins, will hand the US stablecoin market to the banks. According to Hayes, the legislation, which became law earlier this month, will be positive for lenders.

Hayes further says the Middle East region still presents a geopolitical risk, a factor that favors safe-haven assets, despite a recent ceasefire between Iran and Israel that was brokered by President Donald Trump.

“BTC all-time highs are coming!”

The BitMEX co-founder also says an unwind of the US dollar carry trade globally is about to cause “serious pain.” A carry trade is a bet on the interest rate differences between two countries. In the case of the US dollar, the expectation of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve is causing a weakening of the world’s reserve currency, as this will reduce the returns expected on the dollar-denominated assets. According to Hayes, Bitcoin is the antidote for the ongoing weakening of the US dollar.

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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May 28th, 2025 – Mahe, Seychelles

BitMEX Unveils AI-Powered VIP Trading Reports in Partnership with Hoc-trade 

VIP clients on BitMEX can now access personalised AI-powered trading reports that analyse their trading behaviour and help traders optimise their profits.

BitMEX, the safest crypto exchange, today announced the launch of its new AI-driven personalised trading performance reports, exclusively available to its VIP traders. Developed in partnership with Hoc-trade, this new feature positions BitMEX as the only crypto exchange providing in-depth, customised analysis of trading behaviours, empowering its traders to pinpoint areas for improvement and optimise their strategies for enhanced profitability.

This bespoke tool delivers actionable insights derived from a trader’s historical data, clearly highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and specific opportunities for refinement. By understanding their trading patterns on a granular level, VIP clients on BitMEX can now make more informed decisions, sharpen their risk management, and ultimately strive for enhanced returns – a level of trading analysis unmatched in the crypto trading space.

“At BitMEX, we are constantly seeking ways to empower our users with the most advanced tools available,” said Stephan Lutz, CEO of BitMEX. “This collaboration with Hoc-trade allows us to offer our VIP traders an unprecedented level of trading analysis, the first-of-its-kind, giving them a genuine edge in today’s dynamic markets.”

Example Analysis from BitMEX’s Trading Performance Report

Jonas Schleypen, CEO & Co-founder of Hoc-trade commented, “We’re excited to partner with BitMEX as the first crypto exchange to offer VIP Trading Reports. Given the fast-paced, high-volatility nature of crypto markets, staying focused and minimising behavioural biases is more critical than ever—and that’s exactly where the VIP Trading Report delivers value. This partnership reflects BitMEX dedication to driving innovation and raising the bar in financial crypto services.” 

The BitMEX VIP Trading Report is now accessible to BitMEX VIP clients, offering an exclusive advantage in navigating the complexities of the crypto market. Traders can unlock these in-depth analytics, along with a range of other benefits like trading fee discounts, by achieving higher tiers of trading volume on the BitMEX platform or by staking BMEX Tokens, the native token of BitMEX. More details on the VIP tiers can be found here. 

About BitMEX

BitMEX is the OG crypto derivatives exchange, providing professional crypto traders with a platform that caters to their needs through low latency, deep crypto native liquidity and unmatched reliability.

Since its founding, no cryptocurrency has been lost through intrusion or hacking, allowing BitMEX users to trade safely in the knowledge that their funds are secure. So too that they have access to the products and tools they require to be profitable. 

BitMEX was also one of the first exchanges to publish their on-chain Proof of Reserves and Proof of Liabilities data. The exchange continues to publish this data twice a week – proving assurance that they safely store and segregate the funds they are entrusted with. 

For more information on BitMEX, please visit the BitMEX Blog or www.bitmex.com, and follow Telegram, Twitter, Discord, and its online communities. For further inquiries, users can contact press@bitmex.com.

About Hoc-trade

Hoc-trade is a behavioral analytics platform powered by AI, designed to help traders and institutions optimize performance by detecting and correcting emotional and cognitive biases in real time. Pioneering behavioral AI for trading, Hoc-Trade combines advanced machine learning with behavioral finance to deliver hyper-personalized insights that reveal the psychological drivers behind each trading decision — from overtrading and revenge trading to loss aversion and premature profit-taking. By transforming trading history data into actionable behavioral intelligence, Hoc-trade enables users to gain a sustainable edge through deeper self-awareness and smarter decision-making.

Through our flagship product, TradeMedic, Hoc-trade provides hyper-personalized performance reports that help traders understand the psychological factors influencing their trading habits. TradeMedic AI identifies key behavioral biases but also trading strengths, offering actionable insights that drive better decision-making and support long-term trading success. For more information on Hoc-Trade and TradeMedic, users can visit www.hoc-trade.com, and follow them on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. For further inquiries, users can contact info@hoc-trade.com.

Contact

BitMEX Press
press@bitmex.com

Crypto veteran Arthur Hayes says he looks for two main features when considering what digital asset protocols to invest in.

The BitMEX founder notes in a new interview with The Rollup that he specifically looks for protocols that have a track record of users spending their own money for the project’s services.

“They’re not spending token emissions, they’re spending their own stables or other crypto to use as a product or service.” 

In terms of a good example of that, Hayes cites Hyperliquid (HYPE), a layer-1 protocol with a decentralized exchange (DEX) that has witnessed significant user and volume growth in its less than two years of existence.

The crypto veteran also says he looks for protocols that provide ways to enrich their token holders.

“I want to see how I’m getting paid. Is it a token buyback, is it an emission, what’s the scheme? There are all different flavors depending on how you want to incentivize behavior, but at the end of the day, I buy a token, I want some sort of APY, and then I can take that APY and run some sort of financial analysis.” 

He criticizes the decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap (UNI), which he says is an expertly created protocol that doesn’t do anything to reward its users.

?

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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