Key Highlights
- CZ praised BitMEX for helping pioneer 100x perpetual contracts and shaping crypto derivatives trading.
- The BMEX token fell 91% after BitMEX announced plans to shut down, with trading activity surging as traders sold.
- BitMEX will fully close on September 23, 2026, after losing market share to rival exchanges.
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) reacted to BitMEX’s decision to wind down operations by praising the crypto exchange’s role in shaping the derivatives market.
CZ looked back at how BitMEX helped shape crypto trading, while the exchange prepares to close permanently on September 23, 2026, after more than a decade in business.
“Sad to see BitMex go,” CZ wrote in an X post. But his comments were more than a reaction to the exchange’s closure.
CZ remembers how BitMEX changed crypto trading
According to CZ, BitMEX pioneered 100x perpetual contracts in crypto in 2014. Unlike normal futures contracts, perpetual contracts do not have an expiry date. This allowed traders to keep positions open for longer, while the high leverage made it possible to control much larger positions with less money.
The product later became a major part of crypto trading. Other centralized and decentralized exchanges eventually introduced similar contracts, making perpetual futures one of the most popular products in the digital asset market.
The trading rules that helped keep BitMEX safe
CZ also remembered the unusual limits BitMEX placed on its platform in its early years. Users could only deposit Bitcoin, the exchange operated on one blockchain network, and withdrawals were processed only once a day through a multisignature wallet.
Those rules could have been frustrating for users. However, CZ said they also helped protect the exchange.
“The constraints that seemed inconvenient kept them unhacked,” he wrote.
CZ also pointed to the legal troubles faced by BitMEX’s founders. He said all four founders pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act violations after fighting the case for 18 months. According to CZ, each received a $10 million fine and home confinement, while none went to prison.
“However, their business didn’t survive the ‘war on crypto’ from the Biden admin,” CZ added.
BMEX token crashes 91%
As CZ reflected on BitMEX’s history, the exchange’s BMEX token suffered a major collapse.
The token fell from around $0.06 to as low as $0.002, a 91% drop, according to CoinMarketCap data. At the time of writing, the token is trading for $0.005.
The fall began around 7:00 a.m. UTC, about an hour before BitMEX announced that it would shut down. Trading activity immediately surged to over 300% as traders rushed in to sell the market.
BitMEX loses ground in the Bitcoin futures market
Meanwhile, BitMEX’s decline had already become clear in the wider derivatives market. CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said the exchange’s share of the Bitcoin futures market had fallen to around 0.08%, with about $84 million in daily Bitcoin futures trading volume.
“It was a great exchange that helped shape the industry, and now it is passing the torch to the next generation of exchanges it inspired,” Ju wrote on X.
The exchange’s parent company, HDR Global Trading Limited, said it decided to wind down BitMEX after a strategic review. Trading will begin to close in stages from August 26, 2026. From that date, users will no longer be able to open new positions but can reduce or close existing trades.
BitMEX will later force-close remaining positions before shutting down completely on September 23. Users will still be able to access their account history and withdraw funds after trading ends.
How a crypto derivatives pioneer lost its lead
The exchange was founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed. It once stood at the center of crypto derivatives trading.
It processed more than $1 trillion in annual trading volume during the 2019 market cycle and recorded daily volumes above $8 billion in 2018.
But the market changed. Rival exchanges offered deeper liquidity, more tokens and different trading options. 10x Research said BitMEX’s owners even explored a possible $1 billion sale in 2025 before deciding on an orderly wind-down.
For CZ, BitMEX’s closure marks the end of an exchange that helped create a major part of the crypto market. For traders, however, the shutdown is also a reminder of how quickly the industry can change.
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