Once the dominant force in crypto derivatives, BitMEX now handles about 0.08% of Bitcoin futures trading.
BitMEX, the exchange that created the perpetual swap, will cease operations, and has already stopped accepting new account registrations. Owner HDR Global Trading reached the decision after a strategic review; the exchange gave no further reason and declined to comment.
In May 2016, it launched the perpetual swap, a futures contract with no expiry date that let traders take on as much as 100x leverage. The exchange calls it the crypto sector's highest-volume product, adopted since by thousands of individuals and other exchanges.
At its height during the 2019 boom, the platform processed more than $1 trillion in trades a year and accounted for about 57% of the worldwide crypto derivatives market. Its slice of the Bitcoin futures market has since slipped to roughly 0.08% — around $84 million a day — as nimbler centralized rivals and emerging decentralized venues took the perpetuals business it had pioneered, and liquidity, market makers and large traders moved to platforms with deeper order books and fewer legal headaches.
Trading runs normally until 04:00 UTC on August 26, when new risk limits will bar fresh positions and permit only reductions. From that point up to the shutdown, BitMEX will forcibly close positions that remain open so the market winds down in a controlled way, and anything still open when the closure arrives will be closed out automatically. The exchange has urged customers to exit any active positions and withdraw their funds beforehand; KYC-verified holders who leave assets behind will be charged a monthly fee of $50 or 1% annualized, whichever is greater.
Total user assets exceed liabilities, the exchange says, citing its proof-of-reserves page, though congestion on the Bitcoin network could cause significant delays in withdrawing funds.
Cointelegraph reported that the exchange's owners had looked into a possible $1 billion sale over the course of 2025 before settling on a controlled shutdown instead. The exit lands in a shifting market: perpetual-futures trading on centralized exchanges fell 10% to $12.7 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, even as the decentralized platform Hyperliquid climbed to second among perpetuals venues by open interest, trailing only Binance.