BitBay sold to a US investor?

It is not known to whom, it is not known for how much, it is not known why - this is how the message can be summarized in a nutshell BitBay cryptocurrency exchanges, which announced that it has acquired a well-known investor from the US. The stock exchange will no longer be managed by the controversial president Sylwester Suszek.

“The process of changing the investor has already started and, according to preliminary assumptions, it should be completed within the next 12 months. The new investor is a company from the United States operating in the financial technology industry (FinTech) " - we read, among others in the BitBay message. 

When the information was published on the company's social media channels, Internet users flooded BitBay with questions for details. They learned little. Allegedly, the public is expected to learn more details in the near future, but it is not known when and it is not known what exactly BitBay will reveal. So we do not know who takes over the stock exchange, for how much, or on what terms, or even when exactly it will happen.

Check it out: Review of the BitBay transaction platform

Sylwester Suszek removed from BitBay

However, the transaction is most likely at an advanced stage, because the announcement also announced that the current president and founder of BitBay, Sylwester Suszek "Ceased to perform his duties in the company, he is also not involved in new projects implemented by BitBay, both at the strategic and operational level".

This may come as a surprise, because this year Sylwester Suszek argued that he wanted to manage the BitBay exchange for the next 10 years. 

He created it from scratch in 2014, but after four years it was placed on the list of warnings of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority for unauthorized activity in the field of providing payment services. The company was therefore quickly moved to Malta and then to Estonia. 

CHECK OUT: LIST OF CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGES

Controversial owner and shareholders

In 2020 year report about BitBay, as well as its president Sylwester Suszku, was published in the TVN Supervisor. It argued that there are people convicted of VAT fraud on the company's management board, and the president himself may be the so-called "Pole". However, this is nothing compared to one of the shareholders, which is Marek K., who has a 35% stake in the BitBay exchange. Marek K. has been sentenced to eight years in prison for complicity in the murder. He was also fined PLN 45 million for extortion of VAT on fictitious trade in exotic wood. On the other hand, PLN 15 million for the development of the stock exchange in 2017 was lent by an investor who was accused by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority of manipulations on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. 

Journalists also claimed that Sylwester Suszek, who liked to display his fortune (who bragged about e.g. sports cars, villas or a private helicopter), and his associates offered them PLN 1 million for not publishing the material. The president of course denied these reports and announced that he would be seeking huge redress by court.

Sylwester Suszek, son of a teacher and miner, grew up in Piekary Śląskie. He started his career in business from a computer parts store, then tried his hand at the financial intermediation industry. Then he came up with the idea of ​​establishing a cryptocurrency exchange, which he was reportedly encouraged by Chinese computer parts sellers who had previously settled in cryptocurrencies in order to reduce the costs of international transfers.

Currently, BitBay is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Central and Eastern Europeas well as the leading stock exchange throughout Europe. Its daily turnover is estimated at USD 90 billion (source: I Coinmarketcap.co). This does not change the fact that in the world it is still a small company in this industry - ranks in the second hundred of all cryptocurrency exchanges in the world in terms of digital asset turnover.