Trading and deposits ended early on , closing an 11-year run. Customers can still withdraw, but verified users with balances left behind now pay a wind-down fee with a $50 monthly minimum.
Any BitMEX customer with less than $60,000 still on the exchange is now paying more than 1% a year to leave it there.
BitMEX stopped trading, deposits and the opening of new positions at 04:00 UTC on , ending an 11-year run. Users can still log in and withdraw their balances through the platform's website, the exchange said. Verified customers who leave money there now owe a wind-down charge of 1% of their assets a year or $50 a month, whichever is more.
The minimum does the work for smaller accounts. Fifty dollars a month is $600 a year, which equals 1% of $60,000. Below that balance, the flat fee takes a larger share. A customer with $6,000 left behind would pay the equivalent of 10% a year.
The shutdown was not a surprise. BitMEX told users on that it would end operations by , attributing the decision to a strategic review by its parent, HDR Global Trading.
Its place in crypto history is larger than its recent market share. In 2016, the exchange Arthur Hayes helped found introduced the first perpetual swap. A perpetual is a futures contract with no expiration date that tracks the spot price through periodic funding payments between long and short traders. The design spread across the industry and became the dominant way crypto is traded on leverage.
The exchange that created the product did not keep the business. Over the years BitMEX lost market share to Binance, Bybit and OKX.
The closure is a sign that crypto derivatives are consolidating. The instrument is thriving, and even traditional platforms are adopting versions of it: Coinbase's derivatives arm and Kalshi have both filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to list perpetual-style contracts. The venue that pioneered it is exiting.
For remaining customers, the practical step is withdrawal before the fees accumulate. For the market, BitMEX's departure removes a venue from crypto derivatives just as regulated U.S. platforms move into the same product. Whether those newer entrants win meaningful perpetual volume will show whether volume keeps concentrating in the largest existing venues or starts to spread.