On Sunday, September 20, 2026, the Observer reported that Ben Delo, the British billionaire co-founder of crypto exchange BitMEX, saw his cryptocurrency firm hit with a new US court action tied to the 2020 “Black Thursday” market crash, just weeks after he donated £36m to Reform UK.
The lawsuit, filed on 12 September in a US court, was brought by the bankruptcy estate of the collapsed New Jersey-based crypto lender Celsius Network. It targets BitMEX’s holding company, HDR Global Trading, and other corporate entities, but does not name Delo or his fellow co-founders individually as defendants.
The complaint alleges that BitMEX needlessly liquidated large volumes of customer positions during the market turmoil of 12–13 March 2020, when bitcoin’s price fell by nearly 40% in a single day, and that some positions were sold below prevailing market rates. According to the filing, the sell-off triggered a “self-reinforcing liquidation cascade” in which falling prices caused more liquidations, which in turn drove prices lower still.
The action alleges that proceeds from the liquidations were funnelled into BitMEX’s internal insurance fund, which swelled to a peak of 37,836 bitcoin during the crash, worth roughly $3bn at the time. Under BitMEX’s exchange rules, investors have no claim on that fund. Most of it was withdrawn in November last year, and the company has declined to say who benefited.
BitMEX has denied wrongdoing, calling the Celsius claim “false” and “opportunistic.” Chief executive Peter Wilkinson said the firm had not yet been formally served with the claim and described it as resembling more than 20 similar “spurious” cases the company says it has defeated since 2020, including 12 in the US.
Delo, 42, co-founded BitMEX in 2014 alongside Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed. The platform allowed customers to trade bitcoin with up to 100 times leverage and became one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, generating substantial fees and building Delo’s fortune.
In 2022, Delo, Hayes and Reed were convicted of violating the US Bank Secrecy Act for failing to implement anti-money-laundering controls, and BitMEX was fined $100m. All three founders and the company were pardoned by President Donald Trump in March last year.
A separate federal court order in 2021 had required BitMEX to pay $100m for operating an illegal trading platform. Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority also warned in March 2020 that BitMEX was unauthorized to operate in the UK and was suspected of targeting British consumers.
Delo has since stepped back from the financial industry, describing himself as “retired,” and has turned to philanthropy and politics.
Earlier this month, he announced a £36m donation to Reform UK, contributing to a total of around £95m given to the party by Delo and fellow crypto entrepreneur Christopher Harborne. Delo has said his political donations are not motivated by personal gain.
Reform leader Nigel Farage has pledged to support deregulation of the crypto industry.
BitMEX itself is scheduled to cease operations on 23 September, after the company said in July it had failed to find a buyer following a strategic review.
Source: Observer
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