BitMEX, the OG of 100x perps, logs off for good Sept. 23 📉

BitMEX, the crypto derivatives exchange that pioneered the 100x leverage perpetual swap in 2016, will cease operations on Sept. 23, 2026, at 04:00:00 UTC, parent company HDR Global Trading Limited announced Thursday following a strategic review. New account registrations have been halted immediately, and the exchange has urged users to close positions and withdraw funds ahead of the shutdown, warning that assets left on the platform after the deadline will be charged a monthly maintenance fee of at least $50 or an annualized 1%, with the possibility of higher fees in the future after prior notice.

Trading will continue normally until Aug. 26, when BitMEX will impose strict limits barring users from opening any new positions. Between that date and the September deadline, operators will systematically force close remaining open contracts to ensure an orderly market wind-down, with any positions still open at closure automatically closed. Illiquid contracts may be settled early under existing settlement procedures, and BitMEX has unstaked all BMEX tokens held in staking, making them immediately available to holders. The Seychelles-incorporated venue, founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed, said it has logged more than 11 years without losing user funds to hacks, a claim it emphasized in its statement: "BitMEX invented the 100x leverage perpetual swap, the most traded product in the crypto industry – now adopted by thousands of people and exchanges." Users will retain account access after shutdown solely to view balances, review transaction history and withdraw remaining assets, though the exchange cautioned that enhanced withdrawal reviews and blockchain confirmation delays may temporarily slow withdrawals and warned of phishing attempts exploiting the announcement.

The closure marks the end of an 11-year run for an exchange that reshaped global market structure but spent recent years ceding ground to nimbler centralized rivals and a new wave of decentralized venues. BitMEX pleaded guilty in 2024 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act over lax anti-money-laundering controls and paid $100 million in penalties; in March 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned Hayes and his co-founders, who had each agreed to pay a $10 million fine after pleading guilty in 2022 to Bank Secrecy Act violations. The platform also delisted 65 trading pairs and derivative contracts in July citing "insufficient trading interest," compared with 19 delistings in the first half of the year.

Its utility token, BMEX, plunged more than 90% after the shutdown announcement, according to CoinMarketCap. Restructuring adviser Roshan Dharia told Cointelegraph that the demise reflects structural pressures on mid-sized centralized exchanges, adding that "the top five platforms now control an estimated 80% of global spot volume, leaving mid-tier and regional exchanges with shrinking margins and no viable path to scale." CryptoQuant data shows BitMEX's daily Bitcoin futures volume began declining around May 2021 and never recovered to its 2020 daily peak of between $1 billion and $5 billion, while CoinGecko ranked the exchange ninth among derivatives venues in August 2023 with a 0.9% share of trading volume and dropped it from the top 10 perpetual exchanges entirely by 2025.

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, even as annual perpetual trading volume across the top platforms climbed 47.4% to a record $86.2 trillion. CryptoQuant put 2025 perpetual volumes at $61.7 trillion, up $13.8 trillion year over year. Decentralized venues such as Hyperliquid rose to become the second-largest perpetuals exchange by open interest behind only Binance, and regulated competitors have closed in: Coinbase launched CFTC-regulated perpetual-style futures in May after receiving no-action relief, the CFTC approved Bitcoin perpetual futures for Kalshi, and Kraken followed in June with CFTC-regulated perpetual futures for eligible U.S. traders through its recently acquired Bitnomial exchange. Coinbase also secured a U.K. investment services license this month ahead of the country's new crypto regulatory regime, while BitMEX told users to "trade on the many excellent platforms that have followed in our footsteps."