On July 23, 2026, BitMEX announced its closure after 12 years of operation. This marks the end of an era. The exchange was founded by A. Hayes, S. Reed, and D. Melo in 2014. If you're an early adopter of $BTC and a veteran of the cryptocurrency world, you've likely traded on BitMEX. The three founders, including Arthur Hayes, were forced to resign from their leadership roles after being charged with criminal offenses in the United States in 2020: violations of anti-money laundering regulations and the Bank Secrecy Act. All founders were convicted and sentenced to a $10 million fine and house arrest.
WHY WAS BITMEX IMPORTANT TO THE INDUSTRY?
BitMEX was one of the exchanges that contributed most to the growth of the cryptocurrency industry, being the first to introduce derivatives (perpetual futures) and the first to introduce 100x leverage (whether you like the extreme speculation or not, it was an innovation). BitMEX was founded shortly after the Mt. Gox collapse. At the time, there were few exchanges, and while Kraken, Coinbase, Bitfinex, and Bitstamp only allowed spot trading, BitMEX introduced perpetual derivatives trading (used today on Hyperliquid and virtually every exchange).
What BitMEX invented:
1) Perpetual futures trading (without expiration).
2) It introduced the funding rate (to align the derivative price with the spot price).
3) It introduced 100x leverage. One of the sayings on BitMEX was "100x or nothing." With this leverage, less than 1% of adverse movement is enough to get liquidated.
4) He invented the concept of "Margin Calls" via email (liquidations, in fact).
5) He introduced the first Bitcoin index ( $BXBT ) where the $BTC price came from multiple sources.
6) He introduced "trollbox chat," where terms like "rekt" and "panic selling" were used for the first time.
7) Before introducing spot markets, it was a derivatives exchange trading only on $BTC. Before the advent of Binance and FTX, it was the most liquid/largest perpetual futures exchange.
8) He used a multisig wallet with the option of one withdrawal per day. Visible proof of reserve. This prevented him from being hacked.
Of course, there were also many shadows: just like Bitfinex, the exchange has often been at the center of controversies for market manipulation and other controversial events (weak AML controls due to a very lax KYC system, which led to the arrests mentioned above). One of the most notorious market manipulation events was the flash crash of March 12, 2020 (COVID-19), when the price of $BTC almost dropped to zero.
RECENT YEARS
BitMEX, from a perpetual trading perspective, was subsequently impacted by the newcomers emerging between 2019 and 2020: Binance, FTX, Kraken, and Bybit, progressively losing market share. A few years ago, the exchange decided to add a spot market, but with poor results because it remained primarily a derivatives trading exchange, now overwhelmed by competition. The exchange also launched its own $BMEX token, distributed to traders. Never relax, even if you're a giant; you must always grow and strive to innovate because time flies and you quickly become "old" (remember Blockbuster?). Another possible reason that accelerated the crisis was the more stringent regulations (KYC) and also the MiCA regulation, given that BitMEX never applied for a license to operate in Europe (and therefore would have been blocked, also losing European users).
Even if it were centralized, BitMEX will be missed by all the Bitcoin early and crypto industry OG, by those who don't believe in governments, by those who don't believe in regulations (MiCA, MiFID, and all that bullshit), in politicians, banks, and by those who don't believe in humanity. This is why Bitcoin was born: no trust.
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