BitMEX to Shut Down on September 23, Once a Leading Crypto Derivatives Exchange

Odaily Planet Daily reports that the crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX has announced its closure, with trading set to end on September 23. BitMEX, founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed, made this decision following a strategic review by its parent company, HDR Global Trading. BitMEX played a pivotal role in establishing perpetual swaps as a key product in digital asset derivatives trading. According to CryptoQuant data, its daily Bitcoin futures trading volume began declining around May 2021 and never recovered to its peak range of $1 billion to $5 billion per day in October 2020. Restructuring advisor Roshan Dharia noted that mid-sized centralized exchanges face structural pressures, as liquidity continues to consolidate toward larger platforms and compliance costs rise. He stated that the top five exchanges currently account for an estimated 80% of global spot trading volume, leaving mid-sized and regional exchanges with shrinking profit margins and limited pathways to scale. According to CoinGecko data, BitMEX ranked ninth among derivatives exchanges in August 2023, with a trading volume share of 0.9%. By 2025, it no longer ranked among the top ten perpetual swaps exchanges, while the annual perpetual swaps trading volume of these top platforms grew 47.4% to $86.2 trillion during the same period.