[NEWS] Former CEO of Mt. Gox to Establish New Exchange "EllipX"

Mark Karpeles, former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, which collapsed in 2014 due to a Bitcoin (BTC) leak incident, has announced the establishment of a new exchange, EllipX. 

According to cryptocurrency media The Block, EllipX will begin operating based in Poland at the end of September. It will be a new cryptocurrency exchange that emphasizes transparency and ease of use.

Karpeles said in an interview with The Block at the Korea Blockchain Week event held in Seoul, South Korea on the 4th.

The new cryptocurrency exchange, named EllipX, will be based in Poland and is scheduled to launch in Europe later this month. Karpeles said, 

"Mt. Gox was based in Poland, so I know the country well," he said.

He added that the new exchange is currently working to comply with MiCA. As chief technology officer, Karpeles will oversee the technical aspects of EllipX.

EllipX said it will focus primarily on ensuring transparency for consumers, especially those new to crypto. 

"If you look at the top 100 crypto exchanges, the first few are big exchanges like Binance and Coinbase. But when you go down the list to five or six, you don't even know which companies are running the exchanges," Karpeles said.

To ensure the platform's transparency, Karpeles plans to compartmentalize the different parts of the trading platform's work.

"Because today's exchanges are generally in charge of both the broker side, which trades with customers, and the matching side and storage side, which stores crypto and fiat," Karpeles said.

Structure similar to the New York Stock Exchange

The new exchange will have a structure similar to the New York Stock Exchange, but dedicated to crypto assets. Karpeles said, "Basically, what I envision for the future is one organization that handles transactions in the market, and brokers based in different countries provide local services, while the exchange organization only handles transactions. The actual trading of crypto assets is done through a clearinghouse, which is basically a company like BitGo that is separate from the broker."

As crypto investors increasingly value transparency, major crypto exchanges claim to have full transparency and security measures in place.

This has become even more important in the wake of the collapse of FTX, where executives used billions of dollars of client assets for themselves. 

To skeptical crypto investors, Karpeles said that exchanges will have third-party audits of their operations, as well as share technical data with customers to demonstrate full transparency. He said, "If we create this kind of transparency and environment, other exchanges will likely follow suit. Then transparency will become the standard across the industry."

Karpeles added that his efforts for transparency were heavily influenced by his experience with the Mt. Gox hack and the decade-long effort to repay the funds.

Mt. Gox creditors have started to be repaid, which has allowed Karpeles to start a second business. 

Reference: Mark Karpeles, The Block
Image: Shutterstock

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