BitMEX and BitMart Announce Shutdowns Three Days Apart

Two crypto exchanges with a combined two decades of operating history told their users, within three days of each other in late July, that they were closing. BitMEX's parent, HDR Global Trading Limited, said on July 23 that the derivatives venue would wind down after 11 years following a strategic business review, and halted new account registrations the same day. BitMart followed on July 26, ending nine years of operation and stopping new registrations, deposits and trading orders at 01:30 UTC that day. Neither closure came with a hack, an insolvency filing or an enforcement action attached. Both were presented as business decisions. Each venue published a timetable for users to move their assets out. The two timetables are not the same.

Once the largest venue in derivatives

BitMEX traded crypto derivatives, contracts whose value tracks an underlying asset instead of the asset itself, and for a stretch of the last decade it was the largest place in the world to trade them. Its daily volume peaked at $8 billion in July 2018, while annual volume passed $1 trillion in 2019, and at its 2019 high it accounted for roughly 57% of global crypto derivatives activity. In explaining the decision to wind down, the exchange cited competition from nimbler centralized rivals and from decentralized derivatives venues. The announcement came three weeks after leadership changes that removed the chief executive, the chief financial officer and the head of growth.

BitMart said less

BitMart attributed the closure to "operating conditions, market environment, and future strategic direction" and offered no further detail. Its BMX token fell about 58% in 24 hours to roughly 8 cents, a market value near $27 million, after a decline of about 70% over the preceding year. The exchange reported $1.6 billion in 24-hour volume, up 51%, with bitcoin close to half of it. Its notice warned that withdrawals may be subject to identity verification, device and IP checks, address screening, source-of-funds questions and sanctions screening, and that processing could slow if volumes spike.

Two timetables, one shared first deadline

BitMEX: no new positions from August 26, 2026; full cessation September 23 at 04:00 UTC, open contracts force-closed beforehand
BitMEX withdrawals close September 23; assets left after that face a $50 monthly maintenance fee or a 1% annualized levy
BitMart: all trading ceases August 26, 2026; operations end completely January 31, 2027, with withdrawals open throughout

BitMEX set a hard withdrawal deadline and attached a running cost to balances that sit past it, which converts inattention into a charge. BitMart left withdrawals open for the whole period and put five months between the end of trading and the end of the platform. Both venues stop matching orders on the same day, August 26, so customers of either are working to the same first deadline.

The middle of the exchange market thins

Two closures in four days is not a run on the sector, but it is a data point about the tier below the largest venues. Both exchanges were established, and both had years of volume behind them; each concluded that continuing was not worth it, with BitMEX pointing to competition it chose not to keep fighting. It is the second form of exit this month. Earlier in the month, Binance stopped serving users in the European Union instead of completing the authorisation the bloc's new regime required, leaving a market rather than meeting its terms. This week's announcements remove venues outright, not from one jurisdiction.

What neither announcement settles is whether the withdrawals go smoothly. BitMart's own notice lists the checks that can hold a withdrawal up and concedes that volume could slow processing, and BitMEX's fee schedule starts running the day after its deadline. Meanwhile the capital moving in the sector is heading toward the top: Citadel Securities took a strategic stake in Crypto.com earlier in July, among the largest single investments made in the sector that month. Whether the exits stop at two, and whether both firms hold to the dates they have published, are the open questions.