The LSE Directory / Crypto exchanges
BitMEX (Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange) is a centralized cryptocurrency derivatives exchange operated by HDR Global Trading Limited, held since July 2020 under a parent holding structure called the 100x Group. Its core product is leveraged perpetual and futures contracts on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies, alongside spot trading across more than a dozen pairs. The platform also offers a matching engine the company advertises as sub-4 millisecond, one-click crypto purchases and conversions, copy trading, automated trading bots, and API access aimed at programmatic and institutional traders. BitMEX's defining differentiator is that it created the crypto perpetual swap in 2016 with its XBTUSD contract, a derivative with no expiry date that tracks the underlying spot price through a funding-rate mechanism; that instrument subsequently became the dominant contract type across the entire crypto derivatives industry and was replicated by every major competitor. More recently the exchange has expanded into tokenized traditional-finance perpetuals, letting users trade instruments such as major equities, commodities, and FX pairs around the clock using crypto as collateral, a positioning aimed at professional traders wanting continuous access to markets normally confined to standard exchange hours. BitMEX states client assets are held in segregated, multi-party-computation-secured custody and are not lent, staked, or traded by the house, and that it has lost zero customer crypto to a hack since 2014. The exchange was founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed. In October 2020 the US Department of Justice and CFTC charged the founders and the company with Bank Secrecy Act violations for failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer controls; Hayes, Delo, and Reed each pleaded guilty in 2022 and paid criminal fines, and BitMEX itself pleaded guilty in July 2024, paying a $100 million fine in January 2025. In March 2025, President Trump pardoned the three co-founders, former business-development chief Gregory Dwyer, and the company HDR Global Trading Limited itself, an action legal commentators described as a rare, possibly unprecedented, presidential pardon of a corporation. BitMEX was the first major exchange to publish a Proof of Reserves, starting in 2021, and continues to publish a twice-weekly Proof of Reserves and Liabilities report; its own site currently describes its insurance fund, used to backstop liquidations, as exceeding $250 million. In June 2026 BitMEX underwent a leadership shakeup: CEO Stephan Lutz (who had joined as CFO in 2021 and become CEO in late 2022), CFO Ina Steiner, and Chief Growth Officer Raphael Polansky all departed, with former general counsel and COO Peter Wilkinson stepping up as CEO. Trade press reporting at the time linked the changes to a reported effort to find a buyer for the exchange and to cut costs amid a prolonged downturn in digital-asset prices.
