The co-founders of the crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital’s new digital asset exchange, OPNX, has been fined by Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA).
VARA revealed that it had placed a fine of AED10 million ($2.7 million) on the company in May, which remains unpaid.
The Dubai authority disclosed that individual penalties of AED200,000 ($54,451) each were imposed on Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, as well as on OPNX’s two other co-founders, due to failures in adhering to marketing, advertising, and promotional regulations, according to a report by Bloomberg.
“In light of the company’s unpaid fine, VARA shall determine consequential actions warranted against OPNX, which may include further fines, penalties, and/or taking any actions necessary to recover payment and definitively remedy the behavior,” VARA said in a statement.
Dubai has adopted a more stringent stance on cryptocurrencies this year, introducing a new regulatory framework mandating that companies serving retail investors must obtain full licensing from VARA.
Zhu and Davies, in collaboration with Mark Lamb and Sudhu Arumugam, established OPNX earlier this year, positioning it as a platform for trading crypto claims.
Following the collapse of their Three Arrows Capital fund last summer, the duo has made Dubai a primary operational base.
The regulatory authorities became aware in February that OPNX was soliciting customers for its platform and collecting personal data without proper authorisation.
Both Lamb and Arumugam, as well as OPNX’s CEO Leslie Lamb, were also reprimanded by the regulator.
Leslie Lamb had previously informed Bloomberg in May that the firm had not actively marketed towards Dubai or the broader UAE market.
She stressed that OPNX was cooperating fully with VARA’s ongoing investigation and believed that the company had not violated any regulatory guidelines.
“While Kyle and I helped contribute the initial ideas for OPNX, Leslie is very much the CEO and we aren’t involved in day-to-day operations,” Su Zhu said.
Despite this, both Zhu and Davies have continued to promote OPNX on the platform previously known as Twitter, now referred to as X.
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