CoinFLEX
Its creditors were handed 65% of the company in a Seychelles restructuring
A Hong Kong-based crypto futures exchange spun out of the UK exchange Coinfloor, offering physically delivered bitcoin futures, a repo market for borrowing and lending, and its own FLEX exchange token.
- Capital raised (announced)
- Estimated
Recorded announced backing; this is separate from cash received, customer deposits and money recovered.
Funding
| Round | Date | Announced | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategic investment (undisclosed) | 2019 | ||
| 2019 funding round | 2019 | ||
| FLEX token private round | 2021 |
Announced is what was said at the time. Cash actually received is rarely disclosed and is not assumed to match.
People
| Name | Role | Period | Now | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Lamb | — | COO, Triple Helix Science (June to December 2025) | Oct 2026 | |
| Sudhu Arumugam | — | Head of Strategy, @Bitmex | Oct 2026 |
Timeline
January 2019
The futures unit CoinfloorEX was separated from the UK exchange group Coinfloor and relaunched as a physically delivered crypto futures exchange.
13 March 2019
An undisclosed sum. The FLEX exchange token was introduced in the same announcement.
19 February 2021
The company announced plans for an exchange for its interest-bearing stablecoin products.
28 April 2022
The subsidiary announced trading in 49 states, excluding New York, using Prime Trust for custody and compliance. It also offered flexUSD, an interest-bearing stablecoin; the release was a company statement.
23 June 2022
The chief executive cited extreme market conditions and uncertainty involving a counterparty. Trading in the FLEX token was halted as well.
28 June 2022
CoinFLEX said a customer's account had gone into negative equity and offered $47 million of a new token paying 20% interest to cover the shortfall and reopen withdrawals.
9 July 2022
CoinFLEX said the deficit remaining after liquidating the client's collateral was about $84 million, that it had begun arbitration in Hong Kong to recover it, and that it would make 10% of balances withdrawable. It later named the client as Roger Ver, who denied owing the debt.
9 August 2022
Customers were told by email. Staff had been cut the week before.
How it ended
CoinFLEX paused withdrawals in June 2022 and said a single customer's account had gone into negative equity, leaving a shortfall it later put at about $84 million; the customer disputed its account. After releasing 10% of balances and cutting staff, it began a restructuring in the Seychelles in August 2022 that proposed handing creditors most of the company.
What happened next
- Insolvency proceeding6 March 2023
Under the plan as reported, creditors were to receive 65% of the company and employees 15%; Series B shareholders kept their shares and Series A shareholders lost theirs. The approval was announced by the company and reported by two outlets; the court's order itself was not retrieved.
- Founder’s next ventureApril 2023
The co-founders set up OPNX, a claims-trading exchange, with Su Zhu and Kyle Davies and marketed it as a rebrand of CoinFLEX. It launched publicly in April 2023 and told users in February 2024 it was closing, with funds to be withdrawn by 14 February.
- Lawsuit12 October 2023
A writ of summons naming Mark Lamb, OPNX and Roger Ver as defendants sought to void licensing and purchase agreements between CoinFLEX and OPNX's parent companies. Reported by CoinDesk from a copy supplied by the creditors; the court record was not retrieved.
- Aftermath31 October 2023
A notice on the site told users to withdraw all funds by 31 October 2023, when it would cease operations and shut down, and to move balances to OPNX.
Still alive
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Sources
21 sources behind this page.
- 1Crypto exchange CoinFlex is raising $47 million through a new coin after a major investor fails to pay debt · CNBC · Jun 2022
- 2CoinFLEX Pauses Withdrawals Amid 'Extreme Market Conditions' and Counterparty Uncertainty · CoinDesk · Jun 2022
- 3Hobbled Crypto Exchange's Creditors Are Suing Its CEO and Want to Claw Back Money From 'Bitcoin Jesus' · CoinDesk · Oct 2023
- 4Polychain, DCG Invest in Crypto Futures Exchange CoinFLEX · CoinDesk · Mar 2019
- 5CoinFLEX launches its US exchange · CoinFLEX via PR Newswire · Apr 2022
- 6CoinFlex Receives $10 Million Funding for Bitcoin Futures Settlements · Cointelegraph · Aug 2019
- 7CoinFLEX restructuring approved in Seychelles as rebranding reportedly continues · Cointelegraph · Mar 2023
- 8Digital Currency Group, Polychain Back Crypto Futures Exchange Coinflex · Cointelegraph
- 9CoinFLEX Creditors React to OPNX Closure · Decrypt · Feb 2024
- 10Crypto Exchange CoinFLEX Plans $84M Restructuring in Seychelles · Decrypt · Aug 2022
Show 11 moreShow fewer
- 11OPNX, the Crypto Exchange From the Founders of Bankrupt Three Arrows Capital, Is Shutting Down · Decrypt · Feb 2024
- 12Seychelles Court Approves CoinFLEX Restructuring Plan · Decrypt · Mar 2023
- 13LinkedIn profile of Mark Lamb · LinkedIn (self-published profile, viewed by a person) · user-editable
- 14$FLEX Raises $1.25M in the Private Round by Electric Capital, Nascent Ventures, Bering Waters and Leading Investors · PR Newswire (company press release) · Feb 2021
- 15CoinFLEX outlines plan to recover $84 million, raise capital from new investors · The Block · Jul 2022
- 16X account lookup: @MarkDavidLamb · twitterapi.io (X data provider)
- 17X account lookup: @sudhu_aru · twitterapi.io (X data provider)
- 18X post search: @BitMEX posts naming @sudhu_aru (3 June 2026) · twitterapi.io (X data provider)
- 19X post search: @CoinFLEXdotcom posts naming @MarkDavidLamb (2019–2022) · twitterapi.io (X data provider)
- 20X post search: @CoinFLEXdotcom posts naming its co-founder @SudhuCoinFLEX (2019–2022) · twitterapi.io (X data provider)
- 21X post search: @sudhu_aru posts about CoinFLEX (2021–2022) · twitterapi.io (X data provider)
Every figure above is clickable and opens the sources behind it. Copies were stored when each source was read, so a citation still resolves after the page it came from is gone.