BitMEX: He gave up his high-paying banking job just to build the Goldman Sachs of Bitcoin

If you want to work in the financial industry, then you should probably aim for places like Citibank or Deutsche Bank. There are exciting working environments and development opportunities here, and once you are successfully employed, I think there is no good reason for you to leave.

This is just one more interesting episode in the story of Arthur Hayes, co-founder and CEO of BitMEX. After graduating from Wharton School in 2000, Hayes moved to Hong Kong and worked at Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. But he left the banking industry in mid-2013 and devoted his time and energy to Bitcoin, which he believed represented the future of the financial industry.

Specifically, there is a big difference between Bitcoin and traditional digital currencies. Traditional digital currencies can be exchanged for some dollars and used to shop online, but Bitcoin is another matter. Its main function is to play stocks or enter the derivatives market. Building a Bitcoin trading platform and facilitating this type of trading is often a bleak prospect. But Hayes and his co-founders decided to enter this market.

From an idea to $5 million a day

BitMEX is a real-time Bitcoin-based trading platform. The service is still limited to currency futures trading, but projects for stock derivatives and other financial products are in preparation. Right now, BitMEX's main use is as a Bitcoin-based platform to speculate on the future value of this digital currency and to allow anyone, anywhere to leverage investment in any financial product.

However, even in its early iterations, BitMEX’s efforts have not been in vain. Since its founding in early 2015, it has had 3,400 registered users. This is not a huge number, but this group of users has traded more than $250 million since BitMEX launched its financial products. BitMEX now averages $5 million in daily trading, and Hayes said their goal is to reach $50 million in daily trading by this time next year.

BitMEX’s business is becoming lucrative, as the company charges a commission on each trade. Notably, the program is particularly attractive to Chinese users eager to enter the international market.

"Chinese investors cannot invest in Chinese companies like Tencent or Alibaba that are listed overseas," Hayes said, adding that most Chinese people are currently unable to profit from innovations in global financial markets. Currency investment, derivatives trading and buying foreign stocks are all restricted in China.

"China has the majority of the world's bitcoin users and traders," Hayes said. Despite occasional trepidation from Chinese regulators, bitcoin has thrived in mainland China. "Chinese bitcoin holders are eager to use more bitcoin trading products, and BitMEX caters to them."

Asia, the soil for the development of Bitcoin

BitMEX is not allowed in the US market due to government regulations, but this provides it with an incentive to further expand into the Asian market. The company passed the China Accelerator Program in 2015 and strengthened its startup accelerator in Shanghai.

“As a foreigner, from the program, we learned more about how to break into the Chinese market,” Hayes said. Within the region, BitMEX also has its sights set on South Korea and Japan, with China being the world’s largest retail trading market.

The BitMEX team also has a mission to build trust among potential users. In addition to participating in many activities to meet user needs and meet Asian Bitcoin fans, the BitMEX team will often publicize potential user questions on social media.

After initially raising $180,000 in angel funding from friends, family, and accelerators, the company is looking to raise $2 million to expand its product and reach.

In the future, Hayes hopes BitMEX can become a full-featured trading platform that includes stocks, bonds, commodities and foreign exchange trading. He said, "BitMEX will become the Goldman Sachs of Bitcoin."

But maybe that's not such a big shift, given that this is still the world of Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.