BKX Services and David Namdar seek 622.66 BTC, alleging liquidations kept customer collateral. The exchange shuts Sept. 23. A judge must certify the class before the case advances.
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A proposed class action filed the same day BitMEX announced its closure alleges the exchange's liquidation system was designed to profit from customer losses. BKX Services and David Namdar sued in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, claiming combined losses of 622.66 bitcoin, worth roughly $40.7 million. BitMEX rejected the allegations, calling the case opportunistic and said it would defend itself vigorously.
The complaint centers on BitMEX's 100x leverage product. When a position was liquidated, the exchange closed the trade but kept the remaining collateral even if it was worth more than the loss, according to the filing. That leftover bitcoin went into BitMEX's insurance fund, not back to the customer. BKX says it lost at least 305.81 BTC through that process. Namdar alleges more than 316.85 BTC. The lawsuit describes the liquidations as a profit mechanism disguised as risk management.
The plaintiffs also claim BitMEX operated an internal trading desk with privileged access to customer order flow. That desk, they say, continued trading during server outages that prevented ordinary users from closing positions, creating an uneven playing field at moments of maximum stress. The proposed class covers U.S. customers who bought bitcoin swap products from July 23, 2018 onward. A judge must first certify the class before the case can advance.
The timing piles legal pressure onto an already complicated exit. BitMEX said August 1 that parent company HDR Global Trading decided to shutter the exchange after a strategic review. New registrations have stopped. Users will be blocked from opening new positions starting August 26. All trading and withdrawals end September 23. The shutdown timeline leaves current users with about seven weeks to move funds before the platform goes dark.
This is not the first time BitMEX has faced such claims. A nearly identical 2020 lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice in June 2025, meaning the allegations were never ruled on. The new plaintiffs revive that same question: whether BitMEX's liquidation engine was a fair mechanism or a hidden tax on leveraged traders.
BitMEX's response so far has been blunt. In a statement, the exchange dismissed the complaint as baseless. No hearing date has been scheduled for the class certification motion. The outcome of that motion will determine whether the case proceeds as a group action or collapses into individual claims. Bitcoin's profile page shows the token trading near $65,300, roughly flat on the day.
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