Mark Lamb's Crypto Exchange Crisis: The OPNX Lawsuit That Exposed a CEO's Alleged Betrayal

In early 2023, as CoinFLEX teetered on collapse following a catastrophic margin trading incident, CEO Mark Lamb appeared to have discovered salvation in an unlikely partnership. The Seychelles-based exchange had just filed for restructuring after Roger Ver’s $84 million trading debt triggered a chain reaction of losses that the platform couldn’t absorb. Enter Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, the infamous founders of the defunct Three Arrows Capital hedge fund, who proposed a joint venture that promised to revitalize the crypto exchange business—or so the story went.

What emerged from that collaboration would become one of the most controversial episodes in recent crypto history, now playing out in Hong Kong courts with Mark Lamb squarely at the center of a fiduciary duty dispute.

The Genesis: From GTX to OPNX

The original scheme was code-named GTX, billed as the first-of-its-kind platform for trading bankruptcy claims from failed crypto platforms and companies. When a pitch deck leaked in January 2023, it immediately raised questions. Zhu and Davies, once celebrated figures in early DeFi and NFT circles, had become pariahs after Three Arrows Capital’s June 2022 collapse, which they’d triggered through massive unsecured borrowing and failed speculation. The fact that they were launching a new venture into bankruptcy trading struck many observers as darkly ironic—the company even chose a name dangerously reminiscent of FTX, the biggest crypto collapse in history.

Mark Lamb’s wife, Leslie, was set to helm the operation, while Lamb himself played a shadowy guiding role alongside Zhu, Davies, and CoinFLEX co-founder Sudhu Arumugam. In a memo addressing skeptics, CoinFLEX claimed the venture represented an “evolution of commitment to building open and transparent financial markets” and would “increase value for CoinFLEX creditors.”

By April 2023, GTX had rebranded itself as OPNX (Open Exchange) and quietly went live. Few noticed or cared. But CoinFLEX’s creditors certainly did.

The Legal Assault on Mark Lamb’s Authority

In October 2023, creditors filed suit in Hong Kong civil court, accusing Mark Lamb of committing a massive breach of fiduciary duty. Their allegation: Lamb had no authorization from CoinFLEX’s board or creditor committee when he created OPNX. Instead, he allegedly stripped CoinFLEX of its most valuable assets—intellectual property, technology infrastructure, customer database, and key personnel—to build the claims-trading platform into a competing business designed primarily to benefit himself and his inner circle.

The lawsuit names not just Mark Lamb as defendant, but also OPNX’s parent companies (Open Technologies Holding LTD and Open Technology Markets LTD) and surprisingly, Roger Ver, the early Bitcoin advocate nicknamed “Bitcoin Jesus.” The creditors argue that Lamb entered into licensing and purchase agreements with OPNX that were “manifestly uncommercial and detrimental” to CoinFLEX’s interests and designed solely for the personal benefit of Lamb and OPNX. Their requested remedies include voiding all agreements and placing OPNX’s assets and profits into a trust for CoinFLEX creditors.

When contacted by CoinDesk, Mark Lamb did not respond to direct messages on Telegram or X (formerly Twitter), though he read the message and subsequently followed the reporter on social media—a telling silence.

OPNX: A Platform Struggling to Find Its Footing

The harsh reality of Mark Lamb’s grand vision became apparent within months. OPNX launched with fanfare but achieved minimal traction. The platform could only list FTX bankruptcy claims for trading, limiting its utility considerably. The project’s native OX token plummeted 83% from its August 2023 peak. Adding insult to injury, Dubai’s crypto regulator slapped OPNX with a $2.7 million fine in August 2023 for non-compliance, while Hong Kong’s securities regulator pointedly refused to list OPNX as a licensed virtual assets exchange.

Meanwhile, the crypto’s two architects faced their own legal troubles. Su Zhu was apprehended in Singapore in September 2023 as liquidators from Three Arrows investigated his alleged failure to cooperate with bankruptcy proceedings. Kyle Davies’ whereabouts became unclear, though Singapore authorities reportedly sought him on similar grounds.

The Roger Ver Complication: ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ and the Settlement Dispute

The legal filing against Mark Lamb takes an unexpected turn when examining the role of Roger Ver, CoinFLEX’s original 2019 investor whose margin trading account explosion in mid-2022 effectively triggered the exchange’s collapse. Following the Terra-Luna crash and subsequent crypto market implosion that same period, Ver’s position went deep underwater. CoinFLEX failed to liquidate him in time, and the exchange was forced into restructuring—kicking off a bitter public feud between Ver and Lamb over culpability.

According to court documents, Mark Lamb offered Ver two years of free trading on OPNX as a settlement incentive. He also dangled an equity stake in OPNX to Peter Smith, co-founder of blockchain.com and a Ver associate, to attract him as a market maker. CoinFLEX’s creditors now seek to recoup any proceeds Ver received from these arrangements.

But Ver tells a dramatically different story. In communications with CoinDesk, he insisted his original 2022 arbitration against CoinFLEX was actually Ver prosecuting the exchange, not the reverse. He claims to have filed for $200 million in damages based on evidence that third parties had been tipped off about his large positions and traded against him deliberately. When CoinFLEX filed a counterclaim for $84 million, Ver alleges that Mark Lamb violated confidentiality agreements by publicly misrepresenting who the plaintiff and defendant actually were.

According to Ver, his eventual settlement entitled him to the first $100 million recovered from “responsible third parties” in forthcoming legal proceedings. In his view, those proceeds belong to him personally and should not be subject to creditor clawback attempts orchestrated by Mark Lamb. Ver characterized the entire CoinFLEX narrative as “bogus” and positioned himself as the crypto platform’s “largest victim.”

The Aftermath and Broader Questions

The saga of Mark Lamb and OPNX reveals the ongoing messy aftermath of the 2022-2023 crypto crash. Desperate executives, once-celebrated fund managers seeking rehabilitation, and early evangelists caught in margin call catastrophes all found themselves ensnared in disputes over liability, asset allocation, and personal integrity. The fact that Mark Lamb attempted to launch a new venture using CoinFLEX’s assets while the company was still technically operational—and without creditor approval—suggests a level of either desperation or hubris that regulators and courts will likely scrutinize further.

As litigation proceeds through Hong Kong courts, the broader crypto industry watches to see whether Mark Lamb and his associates will be held accountable for alleged fiduciary breaches, and whether creditors can successfully reclaim value they believe was siphoned into OPNX. The case itself underscores how quickly fortunes reverse in crypto, and how yesterday’s platform innovators can become today’s legal defendants.