September 23 is the last day BitMEX will operate as a trading venue. The crypto derivatives exchange announced the permanent shutdown on Thursday, with parent company HDR Global Trading citing a strategic review of the business as the reason behind the decision.
Users have a hard deadline to act: from August 26, the platform switches to risk-limit mode, meaning no new positions can be opened and only reduce-only trades will be allowed. Anything still open at closure gets force-closed immediately, with no exceptions. New account registrations were halted the same day the announcement dropped.
The BMEX token took the hardest hit. It collapsed roughly 91% within 24 hours of the news, leaving its circulating market cap at around $540,000 according to CoinGecko. That figure alone tells you how much of the market had already written off the platform.
BitMEX claims it invented the 100x use perpetual swap, which it calls the most traded financial product in crypto, and points to over 11 years of operating history. Co-founder Arthur Hayes, who started the exchange in 2014, said he was "so proud of what we created and that we will shutdown responsibly on our own terms."
KYC-verified users who leave balances sitting after the closure date will face a monthly fee of $50 equivalent or 1% per annum, whichever is greater. Login access and withdrawals will technically remain available after September 23, but the trading engine goes dark.
The exchange had been quietly trying to find a buyer since February 2025, when it hired Broadhaven Capital Partners to run a sale process. No buyer was disclosed. BitMEX also pleaded guilty in 2024 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act over a weak anti-money laundering program and was handed an additional $100 million fine in January 2025. The co-founders received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump in March 2025. The EU's latest sanctions package, which targeted over 100 banks and crypto firms over AML failures, landed in the same broader regulatory environment that has squeezed centralized crypto venues globally.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset.
