BitMEX ended all trading services at 04:00 UTC on September 23, closing an exchange that spent more than 11 years shaping the crypto derivatives market.
What ended at 04:00 UTC?
BitMEX’s updated support notice confirms that all trading services officially ceased at the scheduled deadline. Users can no longer open, reduce or otherwise manage positions on the exchange.
BitMEX said any contracts still open at the cutoff would be closed automatically using the relevant settlement price or index. The resulting funds were due to be added to each customer’s wallet balance.
The restrictions leading to the shutdown were covered in our original BitMEX closure guide. The practical question now is what customers can still access after trading has stopped.
Trading ended
Exchange services stopped and remaining positions were scheduled for settlement.
Withdrawal options narrow
API access and several multi-network withdrawal options will be removed.
Can customers still withdraw from BitMEX?
Yes. Former customers can continue signing in through the official BitMEX website to view wallet balances, inspect transaction history and request withdrawals.
They should not make new deposits. BitMEX says deposits sent after the September 23 cutoff will not be credited and may be impossible to recover.
Users with remaining balances should:
- Open BitMEX through its official website rather than a link received by email or social media.
- Confirm that the result of any automatic contract settlement appears in the wallet balance.
- Check that the receiving wallet supports both the asset and the selected blockchain network.
- Complete API-dependent or multi-network withdrawals before September 28 where possible.
BitMEX has also warned about impersonators offering priority withdrawals. The exchange does not provide an accelerated withdrawal service. Account problems should be raised through its official support portal.
Balances left behind may incur a fee
BitMEX says verified accounts holding funds after the closure are subject to a charge applied monthly. Its terms describe the fee as 1% per year or a $50 equivalent minimum, whichever is greater.
The charge is deducted from the remaining balance and cannot push an account below zero. BitMEX says a balance smaller than the applicable minimum may eventually be reduced to zero. Users should check the amount shown in their accounts rather than assume how the calculation applies to them.
What changes again on September 28?
Withdrawals remain available, but the methods for requesting them will become more limited at 04:00 UTC on September 28.
- API withdrawals will stop. Automated withdrawal requests will no longer be supported.
- Fireblocks and Copper connections will stop working. Institutions using those integrations will need to change their withdrawal process.
- USDT, USDC and ETH will become Ethereum-only withdrawals. Their alternative network options will be removed.
- Remaining withdrawals must be requested manually. Customers will need to use the BitMEX website.
This deadline matters most to institutional users with automated treasury systems and to customers planning to withdraw stablecoins through a lower-cost network. Withdrawals will not end on September 28, but some of the more convenient routes will.
Why did the wider derivatives market barely react?
The closure is historically notable, but BitMEX no longer controlled enough trading activity to create a sudden market-wide liquidity gap.
At the time of the July shutdown announcement, Kaiko data cited by Reuters placed the exchange’s daily trading volume near $400,000 and its market share below 0.01%. Those figures were a July snapshot rather than measurements from the final trading day, but they show how small BitMEX had become relative to the broader exchange market.
The decline did not begin on September 23. Our earlier analysis of BitMEX open interest showed that derivatives activity had already contracted substantially before the exchange reached its final deadline.
That does not prove every position moved to another venue. Some traders may have recreated their exposure elsewhere, while others may simply have closed it. The important point is that BitMEX’s remaining market had been shrinking gradually, preventing the final shutdown from forcing a large amount of activity to relocate at once.
Why did BitMEX close?
BitMEX says its owner, HDR Global Trading, made the decision after reviewing the business and the wider crypto industry. The company says the closure was not connected with a new legal or regulatory issue.
It also says customer assets remain secure and points to its record of no customer funds lost through hacks during more than 11 years of operation. Those are company statements rather than an independent verification of every customer balance.
The available evidence instead points to a venue whose commercial importance had already declined. Its final deadline formalized an exit that trading activity had anticipated months earlier.
What part of BitMEX survived?
BitMEX helped turn the perpetual swap into one of crypto’s dominant speculative products. A perpetual contract allows traders to take leveraged long or short positions without a fixed expiry date.
The exchange became particularly associated with leverage of up to 100 times a trader’s collateral. That allowed a relatively small deposit to control a much larger position, but it also meant that a minor adverse price move could trigger liquidation.
Neither feature remains unique to BitMEX. Perpetual contracts, funding payments and high leverage are now available across numerous centralized exchanges and onchain trading platforms.
BitMEX therefore lost its position in the market, but the trading model it popularized became standard across competing venues.
The exchange closed after its market had already contracted
BitMEX’s final day produced little visible disruption because its decline happened before the trading engine was switched off. The exchange closed on September 23; the reduction in its liquidity and open positions had been underway for much longer.
This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment or legal advice. Former BitMEX customers should confirm withdrawal requirements and supported networks directly through the exchange’s official website.
Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP.
Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem.
To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem.
His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.
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