BitMEX

BitMEX was a Bitcoin company in the Derivatives category, founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, Samuel Reed.

The Idea

A Bitcoin derivatives exchange built by traders from traditional finance. Co-founder Arthur Hayes set out to bring professional-grade leverage and derivatives to Bitcoin, offering up to 100x leverage on its contracts.

Early Traction

In 2016 BitMEX launched the perpetual swap, a futures contract with no expiry that trades close to spot price, which became the single most important product in digital asset trading. Paired with up to 100x leverage, it made BitMEX the venue where much of Bitcoin's price discovery happened. For most of its life it required no identity verification, users could sign up and trade with just an email, which drew a huge global and often pseudonymous base until BitMEX imposed mandatory KYC in 2020.

Peak Stats

At its 2019 peak, BitMEX handled over $1 trillion in annual volume and roughly 57% of the global digital asset derivatives market. It kept customer funds in a geographically distributed multi-signature cold wallet with withdrawals processed by hand once a day, and despite being one of the most attractive hacking targets in the industry, it never lost funds.

Status Today

Winding down. In October 2020, U.S. prosecutors charged its founders with Bank Secrecy Act violations for failing to run an anti-money-laundering program while serving U.S. customers; Hayes stepped down as CEO, they pleaded guilty and paid fines, and the operator settled for $100M. Trump pardoned the founders in 2025. Having long since lost its lead to Binance, Bybit, and OKX, BitMEX announced in July 2026 that it would shut down after 11 years.