Key Data

• Trading Name: BitMEX
• Legal Entity: HDR Global Trading Limited
• Activities: Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange
• Location: Seychelles
• Regulations: unregulated
• Key People: Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed

BitMEX is a market-leading cryptocurrency derivatives exchange that enables traders to buy and sell futures and perpetuals on a range of crypto assets.

BitMEX was founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed

BitMEX, operated by HDR Global Trading Limited in the Seychelles, quickly established itself as the preferred leveraged trading platform for Bitcoin traders.

Announced in 2016, BitMEX developed and launched open-ended leveraged swap contracts on Bitcoin to allow traders to trade Bitcoin futures with up to 100x leverage and no expiration date, this helped BitMEX become one of the highest turnover Bitcoin exchanges in the world.

BitMEX has not been without controversy, despite the trading platform’s sophisticated user experience and product offerings.

Offering

The firm offers a fiat–crypto onramp, spot trading, and crypto derivatives including perpetual contracts, traditional futures and quanto futures. BitMEX offers amongst the largest market liquidity.

BitMEX continues to offer a highly competitive crypto trading environment, with cheap $1 contracts and leverage up to 1:100. The broker’s proprietary platform offers cutting-edge trading features, including a customizable order book, a depth chart and dozens of technical indicators.

Compliance Problems

BitMEX has been the subject of numerous lawsuits from former customers accusing BitMEX of market manipulation, money laundering, trading against its customers, and violations of international compliance laws.

In 2020, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also filed charges against BitMEX for illegally operating a virtual currency exchange and violations of anti-money laundering laws while conducting business from the United States and allowing U.S. customers to trade on the platform.

The lawsuit against several executives is still ongoing.

BitMEX is conducting an investigation into an unusual trading activity that caused a flash crash and Bitcoin price drop on its platform in March 2024

The price of Bitcoin against Tether’s USDT stablecoin plummeted to as low as $8,900 on BitMEX, while the largest cryptocurrency was trading well above $66,000 on other exchanges. 

However, the price on BitMEX quickly rebounded, Singapore time, Bitcoin was trading at $64,284, according to a report from Bloomberg. 

Customer Review

Trustpilot: 2 Stars with 50+ Review

Conclusion

We rate BitMEX red because of the many compliance issues and poor customer reviews