BitMEX, the crypto derivatives exchange that invented perpetual trading, faces proposed bitcoin theft class action lawsuit and insider trading filed the same day it announced it would close in three months.
In the lawsuit, filed by former tokenization project BKX Services and David Namdar in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, BKX claims 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 September 23, ending an 11-year run. Similar claims were made in a 2020 class action case, which closed in June 2025 without a decision on the settlement allegations.
The new complaint alleges that 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 that an internal trading desk had access to private client information and could continue trading during server freezes that prevented other users from closing their positions.
