BitMEX, one of the leading cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges, has announced that it will permanently shut down operations on September 23, 2026.

 

While the company did not provide an explicit reason for the decision, it said in a blog post that the move followed a strategic review of the business and the broader cryptocurrency industry conducted by the board of HDR Global Trading Limited, BitMEX's parent company.

 

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Following the announcement, BitMEX urged users to close all open positions and withdraw their funds from the platform as soon as possible.

 

To ensure an orderly wind-down, the exchange said it will begin applying risk limits, including allowing users only to reduce existing positions and preventing them from opening new ones. Any positions that remain open after the closure date will be forcibly closed, and the company added that it will not be responsible for any losses incurred during the process.

 

For users who have completed Know Your Customer verification but fail to withdraw their funds, BitMEX said it will charge an annual account maintenance fee equal to the greater of $50 or 1% of the account balance. Although all trading positions will be closed by the September 23 deadline, users will still be able to log in to their accounts and view their wallet balances.

About BitMEX

 

BitMEX, or Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, is a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform co-founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, a former derivatives trader at Deutsche Bank, Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed, who are both software engineers.

 

Following the collapse of the then-largest cryptocurrency exchange, Mt. Gox, Hayes and his team co-founded BitMEX to provide professional-grade derivatives tools that were seriously lacking in the crypto industry at the time.

 

Despite offering various crypto derivatives, including pioneering perpetual swaps with up to 100x leverage, and becoming one of the most notable derivatives exchanges with no recorded security breaches, BitMEX faced severe regulatory scrutiny from U.S. authorities over alleged anti-money laundering and know-your-customer violations.

 

Due to these regulatory challenges, its founders were charged, and the company was fined more than $100 million. These challenges eventually led BitMEX to lose its market dominance and liquidity, and to several unsuccessful attempts to sell the company.