A proposed US class action accuses BitMEX of engineering customer liquidations to keep Bitcoin owed to traders, with plaintiffs claiming combined losses of 622.66 BTC. The suit landed the same day the exchange confirmed it will shut down in September after 11 years.
BitMEX faces a proposed class action in the United States alleging it profited from customer Bitcoin liquidations, filed the same day the derivatives exchange confirmed it will permanently close in September. Two plaintiffs — BKX Services Inc. and trader David Namdar — brought the case in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, claiming combined losses of 622.66 BTC through forced liquidations.
Plaintiffs allege Bitcoin kept after forced liquidations
The plaintiffs argue that closing leveraged positions before exhausting a trader's collateral left excess Bitcoin unreturned, which the complaint says BitMEX moved into its insurance fund. The lawsuit says the exchange let customers trade with leverage of up to 100 times their collateral.
By the plaintiffs' account, BKX Services lost at least 305.81 BTC. Namdar alleges losses exceeding 316.85 BTC, and both seek the return of the Bitcoin plus compensatory and punitive damages. The complaint further alleges an internal trading desk used non-public customer information and kept trading during server outages that locked regular users out of their positions.
The proposed class covers US customers who traded the exchange's Bitcoin perpetual swaps. Eligible traders are those who used the products from July 23, 2018. BitMEX rejected the allegations, saying it has defended similar claims before. The company called the suit an opportunistic claim without merit and said it intends to defend itself vigorously.
Lawsuit lands as BitMEX winds down
This claim arrives as owner HDR Global Trading closes the exchange after a strategic review, with services ending on September 23. New registrations have already stopped, and from August 26 users may only reduce existing positions before remaining trades are wound down.
The complaint also cites a similar case filed in 2020 under the Commodity Exchange Act that was dismissed without prejudice in June 2025. BitMEX has drawn regulatory scrutiny before, with US authorities charging its founders in 2020 over inadequate anti-money-laundering controls, to which the exchange later pleaded guilty. The shutdown news itself sent the exchange's BMEX token down roughly 90%.
Source: Live Bitcoin News
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