Founder Profile
Arthur Hayes
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Arthur Hayes?
Arthur Hayes is a founder of BitMEX, which was founded in 2014 with Ben Delo and Samuel Reed.
- Company founded
- BitMEX
- Founded
- 2014
- Co-founders
- Ben Delo and Samuel Reed
Background
A Wharton economics graduate (2008) who traded equity derivatives and made markets in ETFs at Deutsche Bank and Citigroup in Hong Kong before Citi laid him off in 2013. That background shaped BitMEX as a derivatives venue built around leverage and professional order flow.
Founding Story
Arthur Hayes co-founded BitMEX in 2014 and led it as CEO through the launch of the XBTUSD perpetual swap in 2016 and its 2018-2019 peak. He stepped back in October 2020 after US charges, pleaded guilty in 2022 to failing to maintain an anti-money laundering program, served probation and was pardoned in March 2025. He now runs family office Maelstrom as CIO and is one of crypto's best-known macro writers.
Arthur Hayes was born in 1985 in Detroit. Education: Nichols School.