BitMEX has officially ended exchange operations after 11 years, stopping trading and deposits at 04:00 UTC on September 23, 2026. The platform has now entered a withdrawal-only phase for customers with remaining balances, closing one of the longest-running venues in crypto derivatives. BitMEX says all exchange trading services have ceased, while users can continue accessing their accounts to review balances and withdraw available funds.
The shutdown completes a process announced in July after owner HDR Global Trading Limited conducted a strategic review of the business and the broader crypto industry. BitMEX says the closure was not triggered by financial distress, a hack or immediate regulatory pressure. The final shutdown follows the previously announced BitMEX closure timetable, which progressively restricted trading before the September deadline.
Withdrawals Become the Main Operational Priority
Any positions still open when trading ended were force-closed by the platform. According to BitMEX’s official closure FAQ, remaining contracts were settled using the relevant settlement price or index under its standard settlement procedures, with resulting funds credited to customer wallets. This differs from describing the process as ordinary margin liquidation. Deposits also stopped being credited at 04:00 UTC, and BitMEX warns that assets sent to its deposit addresses after that point may not be recoverable.
The next major infrastructure cutoff arrives on September 28 at 04:00 UTC. API withdrawals will be disabled, including institutional withdrawal integrations with Fireblocks and Copper, leaving the BitMEX website as the supported channel for processing withdrawals. Institutional desks using automated workflows therefore need to complete or redesign those processes before the integrations disappear. The change comes as Fireblocks continues to play a wider role in institutional digital-asset infrastructure.
BitMEX will simultaneously remove its asset-fungibility feature. USDT, USDC and ETH will then be held and available for withdrawal only through Ethereum, eliminating the multi-network withdrawal options previously supported for those assets. Customers moving balances should therefore verify both the destination address and network before confirming a transfer.
Account Fees Start as Wind-Down Continues
The treatment of residual balances has also been updated. A BitMEX support page published on September 23 says account service fees will begin on October 1 and will be deducted monthly from remaining balances. Applicable rates will be communicated through customers’ registered email addresses and may change over time. An earlier closure FAQ had described a 1% annualized fee or $50 equivalent, making the newer support notice the more current reference for when charges begin.
Withdrawal security controls remain active throughout the wind-down. Enabling two-factor authentication or resetting a password can trigger a 24-hour withdrawal cooldown, while disabling 2FA or changing the registered email address can trigger a 72-hour restriction. BitMEX says those security locks cannot be bypassed or expedited by support, making account preparation important before users initiate final transfers.
BitMEX’s departure closes the operating chapter of a venue that helped establish perpetual swaps as a core crypto derivatives product. It also comes amid continued legal scrutiny of historical BitMEX liquidation practices and a broader migration of perpetual trading toward newer centralized and on-chain derivatives venues. The next confirmed milestone is September 28 at 04:00 UTC, when API, Fireblocks and Copper withdrawals end and USDT, USDC and ETH become Ethereum-only, followed by account service fees beginning October 1.
