BitMEX Is Shutting Down: What It Means For You And Where To Move Your Funds

Mila Mostovaya

Crypto Exchange
BitMEX Is Shutting Down: What It Means For You And Where To Move Your Funds

What happened

On 23 July 2026, BitMEX, one of the oldest crypto derivatives centralized exchanges, launched in 2014 and known for pioneering the 100x-leverage perpetual swap, announced it will permanently shut down.

According to the company's own closure notice, the exchange will cease operations at 04:00 UTC on 23 September 2026 (which BitMEX calls the "Closure Time"). The board of its owner and operator, HDR Global Trading Limited, made the decision following a strategic review of the business and the broader crypto industry.

A few key dates and details users should know:

  • Immediately: New account registrations are closed.
  • From 26 August 2026, 04:00 UTC: Risk limits kick in; users can only reduce existing positions, not open new ones. BitMEX will then progressively force-close open positions to wind the market down in an orderly way.
  • 23 September 2026, 04:00 UTC (Closure Time): Any positions still open are force-closed and exchange services end.
  • After closure: BitMEX has warned that assets left on the platform may incur ongoing custody fees, so it is urging all users to close positions and withdraw funds well ahead of the deadline.

BitMEX has emphasized that user assets remain safe during the transition and that the platform kept a clean record with zero customer funds lost to hacks over its 11+ years.

Even so, the shutdown is a clear reminder of the risk of leaving crypto on any centralized platform: the timeline and the rules are set by the operator, not by you.

Where to move your funds: Coin Wallet and Coin Wallet DEX

If you're withdrawing from BitMEX, this is the ideal moment to move to self-custody, and Coin Wallet is built for exactly that.

Coin Wallet is a self-custodial multicurrency wallet trusted by millions of users since 2015, with more than 24 million wallets created across 190 countries.

The main take is that your private keys are stored only on your device and never shared with anyone, so no company can freeze, lose, or shut down access to your money. You can hold and manage assets across 22+ major blockchain networks (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, Toncoin, TRON, Litecoin, Monero, and 2,000+ tokens) in one app on mobile, desktop, or the web, with no registration or KYC required to get started. Built-in swaps let you exchange one coin for another in minutes without ever handing your funds to an exchange.

Read more: How to Import an Existing Wallet Using a Seed Phrase

For traders leaving a derivatives venue like BitMEX, Coin Wallet DEX offers a natural next step: a perpetual futures decentralized exchange built on the Orderly infrastructure, combining an order book with on-chain settlement.

That means you can trade with leverage and CEX-like speed while your funds stay in your own self-custodial wallet the entire time: you keep control, you keep your keys, and there's no central operator holding your balance. It's the same kind of trading BitMEX helped popularize, without the single point of failure that a shutdown like this exposes.

Read more: 9 Best perps DEX for beginners in 2026: Low fees, no KYC

Moving your crypto is quick

Download Coin Wallet, create your self-custodial wallet, back up your recovery phrase, and withdraw your assets from BitMEX to your new wallet addresses before the 23 September deadline.

Take control of your crypto before someone else's shutdown timeline does it for you.