Customers Sue BitMEX for 623 Bitcoin as Exchange Plans Shutdown
Founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed, BitMEX helped popularize bitcoin perpetual swaps and leverage of as much as 100 times, becoming one of crypto’s most influential derivatives venues. The proposed class action strikes at a central risk in high-leverage trading: whether an exchange can control customer data, platform access and liquidation machinery while taking positions against its users. The allegations are unproven and will be tested in court.
BKX Services Inc. and David Namdar filed the proposed class action on July 23, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. They allege an undisclosed “Insider Trading Desk” exploited private account data and server freezes to engineer forced liquidations, costing BKX at least 305.81 BTC and Namdar more than 316.85 BTC — 622.66 BTC in total, valued at about $40.7 million. Hours earlier, BitMEX said a strategic review had led it to close the exchange on Sept. 23 at 04:00 UTC.
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The history behind this eventCourt Rules Bitfinex Sole Victim in Legal Case Over 90,000 Stolen Bitcoin
Bitfinex was hacked on August 2, 2016, resulting in the theft of 119,756 Bitcoin. The exchange compensated customers with BFX tokens and later completed their redemption. A U.S. court ruled that Bitfinex was the sole victim in the criminal case, meaning individual users cannot directly claim the seized assets from the government.
The U.S. Department of Justice seized 94,636 Bitcoin linked to the case in 2022, and the court’s latest ruling orders their return to Bitfinex. Under the platform’s commitment, up to 80% of the recovered proceeds, after costs, must be used to repurchase and burn LEO within 18 months of receiving the assets. The scale and timing of the program have become a focus for the market.
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