BitMEX's API shows 66.4 BTC in four futures contracts that expire after the Sept. 23 shutdown. The exchange will apply early settlement for these limited-liquidity positions.
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Four futures contracts listed on BitMEX carry expiry dates that fall after the exchange's Sept. 23, 2026 closing date. Together they hold 66.4 bitcoin in open value, or about 0.06% of the 108,146 bitcoin the exchange reported across all 39 active instruments on the morning of Aug. 22, 2026.
An analysis of the exchange's public API, conducted at 06:57 UTC on Aug. 22, captured the open-value figures. The total shifted slightly between two calls – 108,146 bitcoin and 108,162 bitcoin – as live positions moved.
Two contracts account for most of the remaining balance. The bitcoin perpetual against USDT (XBTUSDT) held 53.5% of the total open value. The ether perpetual against USDT (ETHUSDT) held 21.3%. That concentration makes orderly closure of those two liquid contracts straightforward. The four soon-to-expire futures are a smaller problem, but a more urgent one.
The four contracts and their open value in bitcoin:
A fifth futures contract, XBTUSD exp Sep 30, 2026, expires before the closing date. The other four cannot be settled through a normal expiry because the exchange will no longer be operating. The exchange's shutdown notice says that for contracts with limited liquidity, early settlement procedures will be applied. Users will be notified through the usual channel.
The 66.4 bitcoin in those four contracts fits squarely within the limited-liquidity category. The settlement date for these holdings will be set by the exchange, not by the holder. That could come well before Sept. 23.
Twelve instruments have already been set to "Unlisted" by the exchange. All are pairs against USDC, including bitcoin, ether, Solana, XRP, gold tokens and the stablecoin RLUSD against USDC. Trading in those pairs has stopped. Position closure is still possible through other pairs, but not in the original settlement currency.
The exchange's shutdown notice is published in six languages: English, simplified and traditional Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese. It is not available in German. German-language help pages on the BitMEX site return HTTP 404.
The full announcement is available on the BitMEX blog. Fee structures for withdrawals are listed on the exchange's fees page.
For holders of the four futures contracts, the immediate task is securing transaction records while the platform is still accessible. After the closing date the history remains viewable, according to the operator, but an exchange in wind-down is not a reliable source for long-term record-keeping. The settlement moment for these contracts is set by the exchange, and settlement occurs without any action by the holder.
Anyone who wants to carry a position forward should compare three points that differ between trading venues more than the identical product names suggest: the funding rate calculation and rhythm, the tiering of risk limits by position size, and the question of whether a provider accepts customers from the European Economic Area at all. That last point has shifted since MiCA, and several internationally known derivatives exchanges today serve European retail customers either not at all or only in a restricted way. Regulated central providers are set out in the comparison of regulated crypto exchanges.
A warning belongs with this. Closing a position at one provider and opening it at another is not a transfer. Between the two steps lies a market phase without a hedge, and the new contract may stand at a different price.
The full notice from the operator is in the official BitMEX announcement of July 23, 2026; the current withdrawal fees are in the exchange's fee overview.
Prepared with AlphaScala editorial tooling from the source reporting linked above. Indexable analysis may include a cited Alpha Score value. Publishing checks screen each story before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.