BitMEX permanently ceased all trading services at 04:00 UTC on September 23, according to an updated notice published on the exchange's official support portal. Customers can no longer open, reduce, or otherwise manage positions on the platform.

BitMEX said any contracts still open at the cutoff would be closed automatically using the relevant settlement price or index, with the resulting funds added to each customer's wallet balance. The restrictions leading up 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.

In brief: exchange services have stopped and remaining positions were settled, while API access and several multi-network withdrawal options are set to 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, however. 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, and account problems should be raised through its official support portal.

Leftover Balances 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. Applied monthly against funds that can no longer be replenished by trading or new deposits, the charge makes leaving a balance on the platform an active cost rather than a neutral default. 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, and 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, with their alternative network options removed.
• Remaining withdrawals must be requested manually through 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. Combined with the monthly charge on remaining balances, the shrinking set of withdrawal routes means delay carries a double cost: fewer ways to move funds, and a balance the fee gradually reduces.

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. A venue responsible for less than one basis point of daily volume simply has little order flow to redistribute when it goes offline.

The decline did not begin on September 23, either. 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, and that the closure was not connected with a new legal or regulatory issue.

The company 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 — enough for a relatively small deposit to control a much larger position, though it also meant 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 on-chain trading platforms. BitMEX therefore lost its position in the market, but the trading model it popularized became standard across competing venues — which is why the tools remain available to traders even though the venue that popularized them is gone.

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. For individual customers, the remaining dates on the closure schedule still matter: September 28 is the next checkpoint at which withdrawal options narrow, after which requests must go through the BitMEX website manually.

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.