Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes announces Bitcoin development grant

Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of BitMEX, has unveiled a grant program for Bitcoin developers. The program is a part of the Maelstrom Fund, a family office fund.

In a July 17 post on X, Hayes urged interested parties to apply, adding:

As loyal followers of Lord Satoshi, we are doing our part to spread the word.

Bitcoin devs get an independent source of funding

According to the official announcement, the program will help bolster Bitcoin’s “technical development,” with the primary goal being enhancing the network’s “resilience, scalability, censorship resistance, and privacy characteristics.”

The program will offer developers up to $250,000, with average grants ranging between $50,000 and $150,000.

The grant will be disbursed in installments over a period of 12 months. The payments will be made via cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), USD Coin (USDC), and Tether (USDT).

Applications for the grants are open until August 25. Before receiving a grant, candidates must undergo at least one interview with either Hayes or Jonathan Bier, the grant program administrator.

Once qualified as a grantee, the developers would be expected to contribute to Bitcoin’s technical development “in the form of pull requests or review work” for the Bitcoin Core software project.

Grants are expected to be awarded sometime during the third and fourth quarters of 2024. At the time of publication, an exact date has yet to be disclosed.

Supporting Bitcoin and decentralisation

Maelstrom is an early-stage investment fund managed by Hayes’s family office. The former BitMEX executive also serves as its CIO. The fund invests in startups working in the decentralised space.

The fund has backed notable projects such as Ethena Labs, the issuer behind the USDe stablecoin.

Malestrom stated that it considers Bitcoin “the bedrock asset” in crypto, highlighting that the Bitcoin network “relies on the work of open-source Bitcoin developers.” It continued:

We are therefore keen to give back and donate to the Bitcoin technology, on which the crypto ecosystem depends.

Lightning Labs developer Lucas Ferreira lauded the grant program on X. London-based venture capital firm Farside Investors also praised Hayes, calling the grant “fantastic news.”

The grant comes as BitMEX has been charged with violating the Bank Secrecy Act. The United States Department of Justice brought the charges, and BitMEX has pleaded guilty.

According to US Attorney Damian Williams, BitMEX failed to provide appropriate anti-money laundering (AML) checks while offering its services to US customers. The court found the exchange’s actions intentional.

Hayes had previously pleaded guilty to similar charges in 2022.

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