BitMEX Closed on September 23: The Deadlines That Applied and What Remains for Your Balance

If you still have a balance or an open position at BitMEX, four cut-off dates now apply to you. On August 26 at 04:00 UTC the operator imposes risk limits under which you can no longer open new positions and can only reduce existing ones. On September 2 at 12:00 UTC eleven perpetual swaps are settled early. On September 23 at 04:00 UTC the exchange ceases operations. After that you can still reach your balance, but you pay a monthly account fee for it. All four dates appear in the company's own notices, and all four are hard.

The Four BitMEX Closure Deadlines at a Glance

BitMEX announced the closure on July 23, 2026. Since then a staged wind-down has been running, which the operator itself describes as an orderly retreat. This overview summarises what happens on which date and what you should have dealt with by then.

The operator cites a strategic review as the reason: after reviewing the business and the wider crypto industry, the board of HDR Global Trading Limited, the owner and operator of the platform, decided on the closure. The exchange has not accepted new accounts since the announcement. We described how the end of a trading venue plays out in detail on July 23, 2026 in the article BitMEX shuts up shop: crypto exchange ends all operations after eleven years.

What Reduce-Only From August 26 Means for Your Open Positions

Reduce-only is an account mode in which an exchange accepts only orders that make an existing position smaller. A buy order on an existing long position is rejected, a sell order on the same position goes through. That is exactly the state BitMEX establishes through risk limits from August 26 at 04:00 UTC.

Two points here are easily overlooked. First, trading does not end at that moment: until Closure Time the platform remains in normal operation according to the operator, so you can continue to sell, close and withdraw. Second, the company expressly reserves the right to force-close open positions itself between August 26 and September 23 in order to wind the market down in an orderly way. In the same notice the operator points out that it accepts no responsibility for trading losses arising because users have not closed their positions themselves by then.

In practice that means the moment at which your position is closed out is, from today, no longer reliably in your hands. Anyone who still wants to determine their own exit price has to do it now. For contracts with thin liquidity the company additionally announces early settlement procedures, about which it will give notice through its usual channels.

The stock of open contracts gives an interesting picture here. Our article of August 22, 2026, BitMEX open interest four days before the block, reported that four futures contracts run past the closure date. The operator's own trading data as of August 26, 2026 confirm this: of five listed futures contracts, four expire only after Closure Time, the latest in March 2027.

On September 2 BitMEX Settles Eleven Perpetual Swaps Early

The second deadline is the less conspicuous one and still affects more accounts. On September 2, 2026 the operator withdraws eleven perpetual swap contracts from trading and settles them early. As justification the notice expressly cites the decision to close the exchange.

The schedule consists of two markers. Until 04:00 UTC, described in the notice as T start, the contracts trade normally. At that point the funding rate is calculated one last time from the preceding eight hours and then set to zero. At 12:00 UTC, the point termed T settle, the contracts expire. Trading ends, all open orders are cancelled, the last funding is settled, and all open positions are closed at the respective settlement price. According to the operator no fees are charged for this settlement.

What a Perpetual Swap Is and Why the Funding Rate Is Decisive Here

A perpetual swap is a derivative on a price which, unlike a classic futures contract, has no expiry date. So that its price nevertheless stays close to the spot price, holders on one side of the market pay a balancing payment to the other at fixed intervals. That payment is called the funding rate. When it is positive, long positions pay short positions; when it is negative, the payment runs the other way.

BitMEX introduced this product in 2014 and describes itself as the inventor of the perpetual swap with hundredfold leverage. Over eleven years it became the industry's most traded instrument and was adopted by countless other platforms. That the pioneer of this product is now the one winding it down early is the real turning point behind the announcement.

For your account three concrete consequences follow on September 2. The last funding is still settled, after which it ceases. Your position is closed not at your preferred price but at the settlement price, which the operator forms from a thirty-minute index. And the result accrued over the term moves to your Bitcoin balance if the contract was collateralised in Bitcoin, or to your Tether balance if it was collateralised in USDT. The contract then disappears from the position overview. Anyone holding a leveraged perpetual position should therefore do the maths themselves before September 2 rather than leaving it to the index price.

These Eleven Contracts Will Be Settled on September 2

The following list is taken verbatim from the operator's notice of August 18, 2026. The index serving as the settlement price is given in brackets in each case.

• SOLUSDT (.BSOLT30M) and SOLUSD (.BSOL30M) on Solana
• XRPUSD (.BXRP30M) and XRPUSDT (.BXRPT30M) on XRP
• BNBUSDT (.BBNBT30M) and BNBUSD (.BBNB30M)
• HYPEUSDT (.BHYPET30M)
• LINKUSD (.BLINK30M)
• SUIUSDT (.BSUIT30M)
• NEARUSDT (.BNEART30M)
• XAUTUSDT (.BXAUTT30M)

Our own measurement at the operator's public trading interface on August 26, 2026 at 00:37 UTC shows that 27 instruments in total stood at open at that point and that all eleven announced contracts were among them. All eleven therefore remain tradable for now, and anyone holding a position in them can still close it themselves. Those who want to keep working with perpetual contracts will find the decentralised alternatives in the comparison of the best perp DEXs.

What Closure Time on September 23 Means for Your Account

Closure Time is the end point of the exchange set by the operator: September 23, 2026, 04:00:00 UTC. From that moment BitMEX, by its own account, no longer provides trading services and merely holds the assets of those users who have not withdrawn by then. All positions still open at that point are immediately force-closed.

One detail concerns every holder of the in-house token: the operator has already unstaked all staked BMEX tokens, so they sit immediately available in accounts. Anyone still holding them there does not have to release them from a staking contract before withdrawing.

Access to the account remains in place after the cut-off date as well. According to the company, users can continue to log in, view their balance and transaction history and initiate withdrawals. That is no longer free of charge, however.

The Account Fee After the Cut-Off: 1 Percent a Year or 50 US Dollars

This is the point that sets the closure apart from an ordinary exchange announcement. Anyone who has verified their account and does not withdraw their assets by Closure Time will, according to the notice, be charged an account fee of 1 percent per year, billed monthly. For accounts whose balance amounts to no more than that sum, a flat charge of the equivalent of 50 US dollars applies instead. The fee runs until the balance has been withdrawn in full.

Two additions make the matter more unpleasant than the bare percentage sounds. The operator reserves the right to raise the fee over time, though it intends to announce this in advance. And anyone who does not withdraw by Closure Time is, by the wording of the notice, deemed to agree to this fee and to later increases. With a small residual balance of a few hundred dollars the flat charge therefore eats up the holding within a few months. That is precisely why it is worth taking small amounts and dust along now instead of leaving them sitting there.

Will BitMEX Still Exist After September 23?

Not as a trading venue. As a custodian for balances not withdrawn, yes, for the time being. The company announces that it will continue to contact users regularly who have not withdrawn their assets after the cut-off date, in order to move them towards withdrawal. The notice gives no end date for this phase, but it does state the intention to raise the fees over time.

On the coverage of customer balances the operator states that assets exceed liabilities, as its own page on proof of reserves and liabilities shows. Proof of reserves is a verification procedure by which an exchange is meant to demonstrate that it actually holds customer balances. That is a statement by the company about itself, not a third-party attestation. For you as a holder the conclusion stays the same regardless of how solid you consider this evidence: a balance on an exchange in wind-down is a claim, not possession.

Why Withdrawals Now Take Longer and How to Spot Phishing Campaigns

The operator expects delays itself and gives three reasons for them. It has introduced additional checks for all requested withdrawals. Under heavy demand, network limits can apply depending on the coin. And the confirmation times of some blockchains are simply long: with Bitcoin an hour is said not to be unusual, which together with a fixed pool of withdrawal addresses slows processing down. If your withdrawal shows the status in progress, it is in the queue according to the company and will be sent as soon as the next address becomes free.

A simple consequence follows: the closer September 23 comes, the fuller that queue gets. A withdrawal at the end of August is considerably more relaxed than one on the evening of September 22.

The second pointer in the notice is a security warning, and it deserves attention. The company expressly warns about phishing campaigns using the closure as a hook, and makes clear that there is no preferential or expedited withdrawal service. Any message promising you a faster withdrawal in exchange for a fee, through a link or against disclosure of access details is therefore identifiable as an attempted fraud. Wind-downs are attractive to attackers because they create genuine time pressure among those affected.

Crypto Tax: Secure Your Transaction History Before the Account Shuts

A forced settlement is not a neutral event for tax purposes. If your position is closed out on September 2 or September 23, a realised result arises whether or not you chose that moment. How this is to be classified in an individual case depends on the type of contract, on the rest of your investment situation and on the legal position at the time of assessment. That is a question for your tax adviser, not for an article.

What you can do now regardless is secure the evidence. The operator undertakes that the transaction history will remain viewable after the cut-off date. That undertaking is no guarantee over a span of years, and an account at a wound-down exchange is a poor filing place for records you will need in the following year's tax return. Export the full trading and withdrawal history while the platform is running normally, and put it where the rest of your crypto records sit.

Where to Move the Balance: Regulated Crypto Exchange, Perp DEX or Your Own Wallet

The answer depends on what you used BitMEX for. Anyone who only held positions there needs no derivatives platform as a replacement. Anyone who traded with leverage faces the choice between another centralised exchange and a decentralised alternative.

For holdings you only wanted to leave sitting anyway, a hardware wallet is the obvious address. The term describes a device that keeps your private key offline, so that it does not leave the device even when signing a transaction. The advantage in exactly this situation is plain: what sits in your own custody cannot be reached by any account fee of an exchange in wind-down.

For active trading, two routes are worth a look. A regulated trading venue gives you deposit protection and supervisory structures, in exchange for identification requirements and a narrower product range. A decentralised venue for perpetual contracts gives you product proximity to what you had at BitMEX, but shifts the risk from the company to the program code. Both routes have their place, and neither has to be decided tonight. What has to be decided today is only whether your position is still open.

Checking the BitMEX Deadlines: Your Key Takeaways

1. Close open positions yourself before the operator does. From August 26 at 04:00 UTC you can only reduce, and BitMEX may close out on its own initiative at any time from then on. If you want to keep trading with leverage, look at the best regulated crypto exchanges first.
2. Withdraw your entire balance before September 23, small amounts included. After that every remaining residue costs 1 percent a year or the equivalent of 50 US dollars, billed monthly. For holdings you want to keep longer, you will find the right device in the hardware wallet comparison.
3. Export the transaction history while the platform is running normally. The forced settlement on September 2 and September 23 produces realised results that you have to document. The crypto tax tools and portfolio trackers in our comparison take the data directly.

The primary sources for all the dates named are the operator's notice on the closure of the exchange of July 23, 2026 and the announcement on the early settlement of the eleven perpetual swaps of August 18, 2026.

(As of August 26, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)