Opin’s co-founders step down amid regulatory pressure

The founders of Opyn, the popular DeFi alternatives protocol, have announced their departure from the company and the crypto industry.

The decision follows a lawsuit filed against Opin by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in September.

The co-founders of Opin announced their exit from crypto

Opin co-founders Zubin Kotcha and Alexis Gaba recently announced their departure from the crypto world. “After the regulatory action against Opin, Alexis and I are going crypto,” Kotcha said in a post on X.

Hey CryptoTwitter,

It has been many times

This is hard…

After the regulatory action against Opyn, @alexisgauba and I decided to release crypto.

This is really emotional for me and Alexis.

— zubin koticha (@snarkyzk) November 14, 2023

Kotcha expressed his dismay and surprise at the turn of events, “We've spent the last six years at TradFi working on amazing things that would never have been possible – pioneering work in structured products and derivatives. We thought we would be in crypto for the rest of our lives. But unfortunately and unexpectedly, this is the end of the road. “

Andrew Lyons, previously vice president specializing in VIX and structured volatility trading at Nomura, will take over as OP's new CEO. Kotcha describes Leon as a “perfect baller” who resembles an MIT-engineered Wall Street derivatives trader, market maker of the DeFi algorithm and a third co-founder. As such, Leon's diverse expertise makes him a strong leader for Opin's next chapter.

Kotcha hinted at interesting developments under Leon's leadership but left the details for the latter to reveal. He closed the announcement about his and Gauba's next venture, promising to share the details soon.

The CFTC fines $250,000 for regulatory violations

In September, the CFTC filed and settled charges against Opin and two other DeFi entities for multiple violations. These include registration failures, non-acceptance of customer identification programs and unauthorized use of digital assets and provision of excluded retail transactions.

Following the suit, Opin was ordered to pay a $250,000 fine and to cease and desist from violating the Commodity Markets Act and CFTC regulations.

California-based Opin is known for its blockchain-based innovation protocol. It has developed an initial token called oSQTH that tracks the price of Ether Square against the USDC stablecoin.

However, the CFTC found that these tokens were traded on exchanges and used or excluded from retail transactions that should have been offered only on a registered exchange under the Commodity Markets Act and the agency's regulations.