HDR Global Trading, parent company of derivatives trading platform BitMEX, has undergone a perhaps controversial rebranding.
- In a Wednesday company blog post, BitMEX/HDR founder and CEO Arthur Hayes announced the parent entity now has a new name: "100x."
- Hayes said the change would open the firm up to "new opportunities and investments" amid the rise in digital financial systems around the world.
- Seychelles-based 100x will now be the holding entity for BitMEX and the group's other assets.
- The BitMEX platform and brand will remain unchanged.
- While the holding firm's new name could appear to be a reference to leverage – using borrowed funds for derivatives trading – Hayes claims differently.
- Any financial service industry that functions on the practices of "opacity, obfuscation and deference to anointed experts" is "fair game for destruction by 100x," he said.
- BitMEX and similar crypto trading platforms have been criticized for offering high levels of leverage that some say bring too much risk for inexperienced traders.
- Last summer, a Chinese bitcoin trader committed suicide after a 100x position was liquidated, losing him about $16.4 million in a single trade, according to media reports.
- BitMEX recently appointed a former Bank of China executive as non-executive chairman of HDR in order to turn the parent business into a "world-class financial technology company."