Joel Edgerton, the chief operating officer at bitFlyer US, urged the crypto exchanges to stop acting like casinos in the wake of the tragic death of a 20-year-old Robinhood customer’s death. In an interview with Coindesk, the COO said that there are too many exchanges that are run like casinos and exploit their customers. The 20-year-old student, Alexander Kearns, took his life after falsely believing he had got himself into more than $700,000-worth of debt by trading complex options contracts on Robinhood. It was later revealed that the negative balance was a temporary phase in between contract execution.
Robinhood vows to add safeguards to its platform.
The crypto trading platform Robinhood vowed to add safeguards to its platform to prevent such incidents from happening in the future. According to the official announcement, the company is considering additional criteria and education for customers seeking level 3 options authorization. Robinhood also announced a $250,000 donation to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. According to the stock and trading platform, these steps may help ensure customers understand the platform’s sophisticated options trading features.
Bitflyer COO criticizes Changpeng Zhao’s response to the incident.
The CEO of one of the leading crypto exchanges Binance, Changpeng Zhao, had tweeted the anti-addiction notice after the tragic death of Robinhood’s customer Alexander Kearns. He wrote that Binance is probably one of the first crypto exchanges to implement Responsible-Trading features in their products. This tweet did not sit well with the chief operating officer of Bitflyer. Joel Edgerton replied to Zhao’s tweet saying that this is like a cigarette company saying smoke responsibly. If Binance actually cared about its customers, they wouldn’t sell 125X leverage. “CZ don’t shill your company on other people’s pain,” he added. He went on to say that Binance CEO’s response was mercenary. He is using a kid’s death to pitch his company, and Binance is actually part of the problem,” he further opined.
This is like a cigarette company saying smoke responsibly. If @binance actually cared about its customers, they wouldn’t sell 125X leverage. @cz_binance don’t shill your company on other people’s pain. https://t.co/agqsyI7hFi
— Joel Edgerton (@Joel_bitFlyer) June 19, 2020
