BitMEX Perpetual Swaps and Reverse Copy Trading Explained
Crypto exchange BitMEX, founded in 2014, pioneered the perpetual swap in May 2016. Its funding-rate and insurance-fund mechanisms resolved the problem of contract expiration and settlement, providing an industry blueprint for platforms including Binance. The product accounted for nearly 78% of crypto derivatives trading volume in 2025, making the decade-old market infrastructure a key tool for investors pursuing cross-platform arbitrage and hedging.
While retaining the core structure, BitMEX introduced native copy-trading and reverse copy-trading features in August 2025, allowing users to replicate or take the opposite side of lead traders’ positions. In February 2026, the platform incorporated on-chain verified performance into its execution engine, enabling users to directly copy top traders on decentralized exchange Hyperliquid. The feature gives users access to on-chain strategies and cross-platform arbitrage opportunities with lower risk.
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The history behind this eventBitMEX Co-Founder Reveals How a Hong Kong Hike Spawned Crypto Perpetuals
BitMEX, founded in Hong Kong in 2014 by Ben Delo, Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed, was seeking a simpler alternative to cryptocurrency futures that expired and forced traders to roll positions. The perpetual swap removed that expiry while using recurring funding payments to keep the contract aligned with Bitcoin’s spot price. The structure ultimately became the crypto market’s dominant leveraged product and a key venue for price discovery.
In a July 2026 account, Delo said the idea took shape during a 2015 hike in Hong Kong with a friend, as they explored combining an expiry-free derivative with a Bitcoin overnight interest-rate mechanism. BitMEX launched the XBTUSD perpetual swap on May 13, 2016, offering funding every eight hours and leverage of as much as 100 times. By May 2021, the contract had generated more than $3 trillion in cumulative trading volume on BitMEX alone.
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