Perp-Etrators of History: BitMEX Logs Off After 11 Years, Forcing 100x Legends to Find New Leverage 🪦

BitMEX, the Seychelles-incorporated crypto derivatives exchange that invented the 100x leverage perpetual swap in May 2016, will cease operations on Sept. 23, 2026, at 04:00:00 UTC, operator HDR Global Trading Limited announced Thursday following a strategic review of the business and the broader industry. New account registrations have been halted immediately, and the platform urged users to close positions and withdraw funds as soon as possible. "We want to reassure you that your assets remain fully safe and under your control during this transition period," BitMEX said in a statement to users, adding that the decision "comes with a very heavy heart."

Trading will continue as normal until Aug. 26, when BitMEX will bar users from opening new positions and allow only position reductions. Between that date and the September deadline, operators will systematically force-close all remaining open contracts to ensure an orderly wind-down. Users who fail to withdraw assets by the deadline will face automatic financial penalties, with the exchange set to charge a monthly maintenance fee of $50 or an annualized 1% levy on their assets. BitMEX told users to trade on "the many excellent platforms that have followed in our footsteps."

Founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed, BitMEX built much of the template that modern crypto derivatives still runs on. Its perpetual swap, a no-expiry futures contract offering up to 100x leverage, helped push crypto perpetuals to volumes of $61.7 trillion in 2025, up $13.8 trillion from the previous year, according to CryptoQuant. The exchange said it had gone more than 11 years without losing user funds to a hack. BitMEX's later history was rockier: the platform pleaded guilty in 2024 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act over lax anti-money-laundering controls and paid $100 million in penalties, and in March 2025 U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned Hayes and his co-founders, wiping out the criminal case that had shadowed the exchange for years.

The shutdown comes as the crypto derivatives market navigates a shifting competitive landscape. 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 alternatives such as Hyperliquid rose to become the second-largest perpetuals exchange by open interest, behind only Binance. HDR Global Trading did not immediately respond to a request for comment on additional factors behind the closure. BitMEX did not disclose further details about the reasoning behind its parent's decision beyond the completed strategic review.