OPNX CEO chastises investors who deny investing

Several purported Open Exchange (OPNX) investors have been criticized by the platform’s chief executive officer after publicly distancing themselves from the project after being identified as benefactors.

On April 22, the CEO of OPNX, Leslie Lamb, tweeted that the companies’ behavior was “disgusting” and “disappointing,” stating that they “want all the upside with little to no risk.”

“I’m here to remind everyone, if it’s not already obvious, that’s not how entrepreneurship works,” Lamb said.

Kyle Davies and Su Zhu, the proprietors of the insolvent crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), founded the bankruptcy claims firm OPNX.

On April 21, OPNX tweeted a video of Lamb thanking several “major investors” for their support. This marked the beginning of the drama.

OPNX included AppWorks, Susquehanna (SIG), DRW, MIAX Group, China Merchant Bank International, Token Bay Capital Nascent, and Tuwaiq Limited on its list of investors.

Nearly half of the listed supporters have now claimed they never chose to finance OPNX and have denied any association with the company.

The first company to publicly deny support was decentralized finance (DeFi) trading firm Nascent, which claimed that despite purchasing Coinflex (FLEX) tokens issued by the company’s previous incarnation, it did not contribute to a funding round for OPNX.

Appworks, a Taiwanese venture capital firm, took to Twitter on April 22 to clarify its investment position, stating that its funding had been “forcibly converted” from its initial holdings in CoinFLEX and that they “do not support what [Davies and Zu] did during the last days of 3AC.”

In addition, the capital market company DRW Trading dissociated itself from the exchange by tweeting that it is “not an investor in OPNX.”

According to data from TradingView, the price of FLEX, the primary token of OPNX, has dropped by more than 21% since the Twitter dispute began.

According to OPNX’s January-distributed presentation document, the platform will enable investors to purchase and sell claims on defunct crypto firms such as 3AC and FTX.

OPNX, unlike other claims market companies, claims to permit consumers to use claims as trading collateral. In addition, the company asserted that it could “fill the power vacuum left by FTX” and expand into regulated markets such as securities and equities.

In June 2022, the crypto exchange Voyager Digital sent 3AC a notice of default for failing to repay a loan of 15,250 Bitcoin (BTC) and 350 million USD.

On July 1, 3AC filed for bankruptcy and has been the subject of criticism from the broader crypto industry, with many of its creditors accusing its founders of running away from legal action.

Several crypto companies have publicly stated that they will refuse to associate with anyone who supports OPNX.

Regardless, CoinFLEX, the main company behind the OPNX project, has defended itself, claiming that it will help make customers of failed crypto ventures “whole again.”