BitMEX, the crypto derivatives exchange that invented the perpetual swap, faces a proposed class action suit alleging theft of bitcoin and insider trading filed the same day it said it would shut down in three months.
The lawsuit, filed by former tokenization project BKX Services and David Namdar in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, sees BKX claim it lost at least 305.81 BTC through forced liquidations, while Namdar alleges losses of more than 316.85 BTC — a total of 622.66 BTC ($40.7 million).
The July 23 filing came as BitMEX said it would close on Sept. 23, ending an 11-year run. Similar claims were made in a 2020 class-action case, which was closed in June 2025 without a ruling on the liquidation allegations.
The new complaint alleges BitMEX and co-founders Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed designed a system to retain customers’ collateral and transfer the remaining bitcoin to the platform’s insurance fund. It also says an internal trading desk had access to private customer information and could continue trading during server freezes that prevented other users from closing their positions.