BitMEX Announces the End of Its Exchange After More Than Eleven Years
BitMEX announced that its exchange would permanently close on September 23, ending an institution that had helped define Bitcoin’s leveraged trading culture and popularized the perpetual-swap model across crypto markets.
On July 23, BitMEX told users that the exchange would close permanently on September 23 at 04:00 UTC. New account registrations stopped immediately, and existing users were instructed to close open positions and withdraw balances before the final shutdown. HDR Global Trading, BitMEX’s owner, said the board made the decision after a strategic review of the business and the broader industry.
The announcement mattered before the servers actually went dark. Founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed, BitMEX became one of the institutions that defined the 2017–2021 Bitcoin trading era. It popularized extreme leverage and the perpetual swap, and for years its liquidation cascades, funding rates, and trader culture were part of how market participants experienced Bitcoin volatility. By 2026 its market share had collapsed, but the name still carried enormous historical recognition.
The same day, two former customers filed a proposed class action seeking the return of roughly 623 BTC and alleging that BitMEX and its founders had manipulated liquidations through privileged trading access and platform freezes. BitMEX disputed the allegations. The lawsuit is consolidated here as context because it sharpened the sense that the July 23 announcement closed not only a business but a controversial era of Bitcoin derivatives history.
The September shutdown may warrant later treatment only if it produces a distinct final event. July records the historically meaningful moment when the community learned that BitMEX itself was ending.