BitMEX Founder Arthur Hayes Announces Exchange's Closure
Arthur Hayes, the founder of BitMEX, has announced that the cryptocurrency exchange will cease operating on September 23, 2026. The news sent shockwaves through the market, causing the BMEX token to plummet by 90% in a matter of hours.
The story began in January 2014 when Hayes met British mathematician Ben Delo at a rooftop bar in Hong Kong. They were joined by American developer Samuel Reed, and together they launched BitMEX with laptops in a Starbucks inside the Jardine House tower. Hayes, who was born in Detroit in 1985, had previously worked as a derivatives trader for Deutsche Bank and Citigroup in Hong Kong before being laid off in 2013.
The idea for BitMEX came about when Hayes realized how inconvenient it was to exchange Bitcoin for yuan physically, prompting him to launch the platform. The exchange became famous for its perpetual swap product, which allowed traders to borrow up to 100 times their deposit without an expiry date.
In June 2019, BitMEX logged a record daily trading volume of $16 billion, making it the largest trading platform in the world at the time. Hayes was dubbed the first crypto billionaire and a financial genius, with his company leasing the 45th floor of Hong Kong's Cheung Kong Center.