BitMEX shut down permanently after 11 years as a crypto derivatives exchange. It stopped all trading, deposits and new position creation at 04:00 UTC on 23 September 2026, two months after announcing the closure on 23 July. Parent company HDR Global Trading cited a strategic review of the business, and withdrawals remain open.
What BitMEX Shut Down, and On What Dates
BitMEX closed in stages across two months rather than in a single cut-off. The exchange stopped new account registrations on the day it announced the closure, then removed the ability to open positions before ending everything.
| Date | What Changed |
|---|---|
| 23 July 2026 | Closure announced; new account registrations stopped the same day |
| 25 August 2026 | Last day of normal two-way trading |
| 26 August 2026 | Reduce-only mode: traders could close positions but not open them |
| 23 September 2026, 04:00 UTC | Trading, deposits and new positions ended permanently |
| After 23 September 2026 | Accounts stay reachable for withdrawals and read-only trade history |
Any positions still open when the deadline arrived were force-closed by the exchange. BitMEX was owned and operated by HDR Global Trading Limited, registered in the Seychelles.
Is Your Money Still on BitMEX?
Yes, withdrawals are still working, but leaving a balance on the platform now costs money every month. BitMEX stated that withdrawals remain available as it winds down, so this is a closure rather than a freeze on customer assets.
Verified accounts that still held funds after 23 September 2026 became subject to a recurring account maintenance charge. The charge is the greater of a $50 equivalent or 1% of the balance a year, billed monthly and deducted from whatever is left in the account. BitMEX said the deduction will not push a balance below zero, so a small balance is eroded rather than turned into a debt.
The practical consequence is that a dormant account loses value steadily. An account holding a few hundred dollars is largely consumed by the $50 monthly minimum within months.
Why Wasn’t BitMEX Sold Instead of Closed?
BitMEX tried to sell itself for roughly two years and no buyer submitted a formal bid. According to reporting by CoinDesk published on 31 July 2026, HDR Global retained the investment bank Broadhaven Capital Partners to run a sale process, with a target valuation near $1 billion.
The publicly listed wallet and payments company Exodus was among the parties that examined the business and then withdrew, alongside unnamed rival exchanges. CoinDesk reported that no interested company ever confirmed a formal bid.
Three obstacles came up repeatedly in that reporting. The three co-founders still held a large majority of the company’s equity despite no longer running it, which made post-acquisition incentives awkward. Revenue was shrinking: monthly futures volume fell from above $100 billion in 2021 to roughly $25 billion to $30 billion by late 2024. And the unresolved reputational weight of the Bank Secrecy Act case made the asset hard to underwrite.
How BitMEX Lost the Market It Invented
BitMEX built the perpetual swap and then lost almost all of the market that product created. Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed founded the exchange in 2014, and in 2016 it launched perpetual futures with leverage of up to 100 times, a contract with no expiry date that has since become the most traded instrument in crypto and is offered on thousands of venues.
At its height the exchange was the centre of crypto leverage. Its turnover across all products topped $16 billion in a single day on 27 June 2019, and its share of global crypto derivatives trading during 2018 and 2019 has been reported at about 57%.
The decline was steady rather than sudden. Binance launched futures in September 2019 and, with OKX and Bybit, absorbed the liquidity. By the time BitMEX announced its closure its share of derivatives volume was reported at roughly 0.08%. Published estimates of its final daily trading volume differ widely between outlets, so no single figure for that is reliable.
CoinGecko data for the first half of 2026 ranked Binance first among perpetual futures exchanges on about 35% of volume, followed by OKX on 16%, Bybit on 11%, MEXC on 10% and Gate on 9%. The product BitMEX invented outlived the company that invented it.
Was This a Collapse or an Orderly Wind-Down?
This was an orderly wind-down, not an insolvency. The distinction matters because the phrase “crypto exchange shuts down” usually signals missing customer money, and that is not what happened here.
BitMEX’s Proof of Reserves page showed assets exceeding liabilities at the close, and the exchange recorded no customer funds lost to hacks across its operating history. Customers were given two months of notice and a working withdrawal channel.
That is a different outcome from FTX, which collapsed into bankruptcy and has spent years repaying creditors. BitMEX ran out of market position, not out of customer assets.
Where Do the BitMEX Legal Cases Stand?
The criminal case against BitMEX ended in presidential pardons, and one large civil claim filed days before the shutdown is still live.
- 1 October 2020: The CFTC filed civil charges and federal prosecutors in Manhattan indicted Hayes, Delo, Reed and senior employee Gregory Dwyer over Bank Secrecy Act violations.
- 2021: The CFTC and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network settled their charges against the company for $100 million.
- February and March 2022: The three co-founders each pleaded guilty and each paid a $10 million criminal fine. Hayes was sentenced in May 2022 to two years of probation with six months of home confinement; Delo received 30 months of probation.
- 10 July 2024: HDR Global Trading pleaded guilty as a corporation to a Bank Secrecy Act violation.
- 15 January 2025: Judge John Koeltl of the Southern District of New York fined the company $100 million and imposed two years of unsupervised probation.
- Late March 2025: President Donald Trump pardoned the four men and HDR Global Trading itself, waiving the fine in the week it fell due. Reporting at the time described it as the first US pardon granted to a corporation rather than a person.
- 12 September 2026: The Celsius bankruptcy estate sued five BitMEX-linked companies in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
The Celsius claim seeks about $495 million over 6,360 bitcoin that the estate says were wrongly liquidated during the March 2020 market crash, alleging fraud, market manipulation and wrongful liquidation. It was filed through estate representative Blockchain Recovery Investment Consortium, eleven days before the exchange stopped trading. Closing the exchange does not dispose of that litigation, and the claim remains unresolved.
The pardons made BitMEX’s criminal outcome unusually mild by the standards of the sector. Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon is serving a 15-year federal sentence for a separate fraud.
Where Are the BitMEX Founders Now?
None of the three co-founders runs an exchange, and all were pardoned in March 2025. Arthur Hayes stepped down as chief executive in October 2020 as the Bank Secrecy Act case began and now leads Maelstrom, his family office, as chief investment officer; it was reported in 2026 to be raising at least $250 million for a private equity fund targeting mid-sized crypto infrastructure and data companies.
Ben Delo moved into British politics. On 11 September 2026 he pledged £36 million to Reform UK, described in reporting as a record donation to a British political party, and said the purpose was to level the playing field against the Conservatives and Labour. Samuel Reed has kept a markedly lower public profile than either of his co-founders.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Still Withdraw Funds From BitMEX?
Yes. Withdrawals stayed open after the 23 September 2026 shutdown, and accounts remain reachable for balances and trade history. Any funds left behind are charged the greater of $50 or 1% a year, billed monthly.
Did BitMEX Customers Lose Their Money?
No. The exchange closed with assets exceeding liabilities on its Proof of Reserves page, and it never lost customer funds to a hack during its 11 years of operation.
Why Did BitMEX Really Shut Down?
It had lost nearly all of the derivatives market it created and could not find a buyer after about two years of trying. The board cited a strategic review of the business and the wider crypto industry.
Did the BitMEX Founders Go to Prison?
No. Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed each received probation rather than custody after pleading guilty in 2022, and President Trump pardoned all three, plus Gregory Dwyer and the company, in late March 2025.
Does the Perpetual Swap Still Exist Without BitMEX?
Yes. The contract BitMEX introduced in 2016 is now the most traded product in crypto and is listed across thousands of venues, with Binance, OKX and Bybit handling the largest share.
