BitMEX’s Arthur Hayes Advises Mycelium’s Perpetuals Launch

The blockchain infrastructure provider said Hayes has been advising them on their latest derivative product on an “ongoing basis.”

article-image

Source: CC BY 3.0 CH

share

key takeaways

  • Brisbane-based Mycelium has launched its perpetuals product following a successful DAO vote earlier last week
  • BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes assisted in a support capacity where he provided “immeasurable” advise ahead of the delivery of the product, Mycelium said

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has been advising Australia-based blockchain infrastructure provider Mycelium on an “ongoing basis” ahead of Tuesday’s launch of its perpetual swap product, according to a statement.

Mycelium Perpetual Swaps, which live on Ethereum layer-2 Arbitrum, provide exposure to “blue chip” cryptos with 30x leverage, allowing them to trade against the platform’s liquidity pool.

Brisbane-based Mycelium merged with decentralized derivatives platform Tracer DAO late last week following a successful proposal vote by members of Tracer’s decentralized autonomous organization. The move was described as a precursor to future derivative product launches from Mycelium.

Traders of the perpetual product are able to access markets involving governance tokens from Curve Finance (CRV) Frax (FXS) and Balancer (BAL). Additional markets for bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), chainlink (LINK) and uniswap (UNI) have also gone live marking Mycelium as the largest provider of perpetuals on Arbitrum, the provider said.

Perpetual swaps, unlike traditional futures, allow traders to speculate on the future price of an asset, without an expiration date.

Traders are not required to post 100% of collateral as margin, which allows for leverage in many multiples on certain contracts. Margin is typically denominated in crypto. Perpetual swap products have risen in popularity in crypto ever since BitMEX pioneered the crypto derivatives in 2016.

It follows the platform’s first derivative product, dubbed “Perpetual Pools,” in 2021 which was launched under the brand name Tracer, also on Arbitrum.

The pools function by rebalancing long and short positions while attempting to shield traders from liquidations. Over the past 12 months, the product has witnessed more than $800 million in trading volume, Mycelium said.

Arthur Hayes’ involvement

Hayes, who has kept a low profile following his guilty plea to US Department of Justice charges of violating the Bank Secrecy Act, continues to provide “advice and support” to Mycelium, a spokesperson told Blockworks.

Hayes and BitMEX’s other co-founder Ben Delo were accused of flouting US anti-money laundering rules from 2015 to 2020.

The BitMEX co-founder has been working with the Tracer (now Mycelium) team for over a year, a spokesperson told Blockworks, where he has been providing feedback on ideas regarding financial engineering.

Further details of his involvement were not provided and a request for additional information was declined.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

recent research

Unlocked Advisory-min.png

Research

This report distills Blockworks Advisory’s research on incentive programs and their analysis, offering a foundation for designing future initiatives and advancing industry-wide standards. By highlighting key lessons and methodologies, we aim to empower protocols to make informed, data-driven decisions.

article-image

The company did about 2.5 times the amount of crypto-backed collateral financing in November compared to the rest of 2024, exec says

article-image

Programmable yield, seamless swaps and decentralized control are the hallmarks of a new stablecoin model

article-image

Crypto is “really exciting,” former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins said in a podcast interview last year

article-image

Bitcoin is now the “seventh most valuable asset in the world by market cap, just behind the likes of Google and Amazon,” GSR’s Brian Rudick said

article-image

Many analysts expected bitcoin to top $100K before year-end, though it’s been on a post-election tear

article-image

Will investors take a 10% lower return to get access to a regulated investment wrapper?