"Wehave to make trust verifiable," Robert MacDonald told FinanceMagnates.com.That is thestandard the former Bybit compliance chief now inherits at MEXC, which namedhim its chief compliance officer today (Wednesday) as it pushes deeper intoequities and other regulated products.MacDonaldwill run the exchange's global compliance strategy, governance framework anddealings with regulators, the company said. His arrivalcoincides with a broader shift at the venue, which has moved well beyond spotcrypto intotokenized stocks, exchange-traded funds and initial public offering access,a move that pulls MEXC closer to securities rules it has largely operatedoutside.ACompliance Chief Moves From Bybit to MEXCMacDonaldjoins from Bybit, where he served as chief legal and compliance officerfrom 2024, directing the exchange's global licensing work and the rollout ofanti-money-laundering and know-your-customer programs, the company said. Hisearlier roles included senior compliance posts at Standard Chartered andBinance, where he focused on sanctions and regulatory strategy.His time atBybit also spanned the February 2025 breach that drainedroughly $1.4 billionin ether, the largest theft in crypto history. In 2025 he was named among AsianLegal Business's top 15 chief compliance officers, according to the tradepublication.Crypto Exchanges Race toStaff Up ComplianceThe hirefits a wider pattern of exchanges building out compliance teams as regulatorstighten scrutiny of digital assets and the multi-asset products these venuesnow sell.OKX in May appointed former Pepperstone UK chiefexecutive Iain Rogers as its head of compliance for Europe, the Middle East andAfrica, adding a traditional brokerage executive to its regulatory bench.MacDonald steps into a comparable brief at MEXC, only with a global remitrather than a regional one.Bitget wenta similar route last year, bringing in former Binance lawyer Hon Ng as chief legal officer and telling FinanceMagnates.com itwanted growth and tighter controls to advance together. Both OKX and Bitgethave pursued European licensing. MEXCentered July without a MiCA license and without a public update on anyapplication, its published list of restricted jurisdictions still leaving outEU member states as of a May review.Multi-Asset Expansion PutsSecurities Rules in PlayMEXC hasspent the past year adding products that look more like a brokerage than acrypto exchange. It sells USDT-settled stock futures with leverage, and in June launchedreal U.S. share trading under itsRealStocks brand,moving past the tokenized-equity format that dominated the sector. Each stepraises the question of when one of these products counts as a security, andwhere.In commentsto FinanceMagnates.com, MacDonald was blunt about the limits of a one-sizeapproach. "A single detailed rulebook would break down quickly across 170markets," he said. Theworkable model, he added, is a common group standard for core controls pairedwith local rules that decide what customers can actually access, so productaccess, leverage and disclosures shift by market.He put asmuch weight on execution as on legal analysis. "A legal conclusion isuseless if the platform cannot apply it," he said. MEXC would keep localpermissions under review, he added, and "withdraw access where the legalbasis is unclear."MEXC chiefexecutive Vugar Usi framed the hire around that convergence, saying"innovation and compliance can no longer be treated as separatepriorities."Security Claims MacDonald'sbroader pitch is that faith is no longer enough: "exchanges can no longerask users or regulators to simply trust them," he told FinanceMagnates.com.He called instead for more regular, independently verified disclosures, and forcompliance to be built into products from the start.He saidMEXC had expanded its Guardian Fund by 1,000 bitcoin, deepened work withsecurity firm Hacken, and that its systems intercepted threats involving $191million in user assets and protected 1.92 million users between January 2025and the first quarter of 2026. MacDonaldhimself set a higher bar: "trust is not built through a single fund, auditor announcement," he said. Theexchange, however, carries a longer regulatory shadow. Hong Kong's Securitiesand Futures Commission placed MEXC on a warning list over unlicensed activity in 2024,and that alert still stands.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.