BitMEX to Close on September 23, Halts New Sign-Ups

Founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes and his co-founders, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed, BitMEX built a template much of the industry still runs on. In May 2016 it launched the perpetual swap, a no-expiry futures contract offering up to 100x leverage. Crypto perps have since gone on to reach volumes of $61.7 trillion in 2025, per CryptoQuant, up $13.8 trillion on the previous year. The broader market now sees derivatives volume dwarfing spot by a wide margin. BitMEX noted it had gone more than 11 years without losing user funds to a hack, a pointed claim in a year defined by nine-figure exploits.

Its later history was rockier. 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, wiping out the criminal case that had shadowed the exchange for years.

The move, BitMEX said, "comes with a heavy heart." The company told users to trade on "the many excellent platforms that have followed in our footsteps."