100x Leverage, One Final Close: BitMEX Pulls the Plug After 11 Years of Perpetuals 🪦

BitMEX, the Seychelles-incorporated crypto derivatives exchange that pioneered the 100x leverage perpetual swap, will cease operations on Sept. 23, 2026 at 04:00:00 UTC, parent company HDR Global Trading Limited told users on Thursday after a strategic business review. New account registrations have been halted immediately, and the platform urged customers to close positions and withdraw funds as soon as possible. "Today, we share with a very heavy heart that BitMEX exchange will shut down its operations, effective 23 September 2026 at 04:00:00 UTC," the exchange said in a statement to account holders, adding, "We want to reassure you that your assets remain fully safe and under your control during this transition period."

Trading will continue in standard fashion until Aug. 26, when BitMEX will bar users from opening any new positions and restrict activity to reducing existing exposure. From that point through the September deadline, operators will systematically force-close remaining open contracts to ensure an orderly wind-down of the market. Users who fail to withdraw assets by the cutoff will face automatic financial penalties, including a monthly maintenance fee of $50 or an annualized 1% levy on assets held on the platform, the exchange said.

BitMEX was founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed, and launched the perpetual swap in May 2016 — a no-expiry futures contract offering up to 100x leverage that became the template for the broader derivatives industry. Crypto perpetuals trading volume reached $61.7 trillion in 2025, up $13.8 trillion year over year, according to CryptoQuant. BitMEX said it operated for more than 11 years without losing customer funds to a hack.

The exchange's later years were marked by legal turbulence. BitMEX pleaded guilty in 2024 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act over lax anti-money-laundering controls and paid $100 million in penalties. Hayes, Delo and Reed had each pleaded guilty in 2022 to Bank Secrecy Act violations and agreed to pay $10 million fines; in March 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned the three co-founders, according to a CNBC report. Hayes posted "Thank you" on X after the pardon.

The closure lands as centralized exchange perpetual futures volume fell 10% to $12.7 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, according to CoinGecko's latest Crypto Industry Report, while decentralized venues such as Hyperliquid rose to become the second-largest perpetuals exchange by open interest behind only Binance. BitMEX told users to trade on "the many excellent platforms that have followed in our footsteps" as the 11-year run of the venue that helped popularize perpetual swap contracts draws to a close.