Arthur Hayes’ BitMEX Is Shutting Down After 11 Years: What Went Wrong?
BitMEX announced Wednesday it will shut down its exchange on Sept. 23, 2026, ending an 11-year run as one of crypto’s most influential derivatives platforms after a strategic review of the business.
What Is Happening And When
HDR Global Trading Limited, the owner and operator of BitMEX, said the board made the decision following a strategic review of the exchange and the broader crypto industry.
New account registrations stopped immediately with Wednesday’s announcement.
The exchange will continue operating normally until Aug. 26, when BitMEX will stop users from opening new positions, allowing only position reductions.
From Aug. 26 to the Sept. 23 closure, BitMEX will force close existing positions to wind down the market in an orderly way. Any positions still open at closure will be force closed immediately.
What Users Need To Do
BitMEX is urging all users to close open positions and withdraw funds as soon as possible.
Users who fail to withdraw by Sept. 23 will face a monthly account fee of $50 or 1% per annum, whichever is greater, with the fee subject to increases over time if funds remain unclaimed.
BitMEX also warned users to watch for phishing attempts exploiting the closure news, noting that no expedited or priority withdrawal service exists.
The company confirmed all assets exceed liabilities as stated on its Proof of Reserves and Liabilities page. BitMEX has unstaked all previously staked BMEX tokens, making them immediately available in holders’ accounts.
What BitMEX Built And Why It Mattered
BitMEX launched in 2014 with a mission to give retail traders access to professional-grade crypto derivatives.
The exchange invented the 100x leverage perpetual swap, now the most widely traded product structure in crypto and adopted across thousands of platforms globally.
The company pointed to its security record as a defining achievement, noting that BitMEX never lost user funds to a hack across its entire 11-year operating history, an outcome it said set it apart from many competitors in a space where exchange hacks have cost users billions of dollars.
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