Hayes recently bought a house in Miami, but his attorney said he could do his home detention elsewhere. He expressed that he regretted participating in that criminal activity and asked the judge to allow him to go back home.
The New York federal court sentenced Arthur Hayes to two years of probation, six months of house arrest, and location monitoring. In February, the former CEO of BitMEX pleaded guilty to anti-money laundering (AML) charges on the exchange.
Hayes will have 30 days to decide where in the United States he will serve his house arrest. After living in Singapore for a long time, he recently bought a house in Miami. However, his attorney said he might want to do his home detention elsewhere as he does not have a community in Florida.
Over two dozen friends and relatives, including his wife, his mother, and his brother, were behind him in the courtroom. Hayes told Judge John Koeltl of the US Southern District Court in New York that he took full responsibility for what he did.
He expressed he regretted participating in that criminal activity and promised to turn the page and start over. He asked the judge to allow him to go back home to begin the next chapter of his life.
Koeltl agreed that Hayes could travel internationally after completing his period of home detention successfully. He would have to communicate with his parole officer whenever needed via video call from his home in Singapore.
The Chinese Authorities Seem Not To Have Stopped Bitcoin Mining
The Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF) recently released an update to its Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index. It partly seeks to discover and share the geographical location of Bitcoin miners worldwide.
The mining share of China dropped from 34.3% in June 2021 to 0.0% in July 2021, following the ban by the government. The most recent update showed that the mining share of the Asian country rose from 0.0% in August 2021 to 22.3% in September 2021.
China banned Bitcoin mining in May 2021, and there were practically no miners in the country in July and August. The data indicates that almost all miners returned in September.
An Explosion and Fire Force the Disconnection of over 3,000 Cryptocurrency Miners
Bit Digital, a New York-based cryptocurrency mining company, reported that two hosting partners stopped operating over 4,800 devices. The suspension of those pieces of equipment occurred after power outages at different facilities.
The firm recently said that an explosion and subsequent fire damaged a substation in Niagara Falls. That forced its partner Blockfusion USA to disconnect 2,515 Bitcoin (BTC) and 710 Ether (ETH) miners at that place.
In addition, the mining company reported that its partner Digihost experienced a similar power outage. That led to the disconnection of 1,580 cryptocurrency miners at a facility in North Tonawanda, New York.
The explosion and fire did not directly damage any mining equipment but only the substation supplying electricity. The mining company did not suggest that one of its rigs caused the accident, attributed to defective equipment of the power company. For that reason, they will seek reimbursement for lost revenue from the mining of cryptocurrencies.
By Alexander Salazar
