BitMEX and its co-founders are once again facing legal challenges in the United States, this time through a newly filed class-action lawsuit accusing the crypto derivatives platform of running a secret inside trading operation against itself. customers.
The complaint was submitted on July 23, 2026. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York with BKX Services Inc. and individual trader David Namdar, who sought to represent a broader group of affected users.
The defendants include HDR Global Trading Limited, the company behind BitMEX, and its co-founders. Arthur Hayes, I’m DeloAnd samuel reedand former manager Gregory Dwyer.
At the center of the allegations is the allegation that BitMEX maintains a secret “Insider Trading Desk”.
Plaintiffs claim that this desk allows the exchange to take the opposite side of customer transactions while promoting itself as a neutral market.
They also claim that: BitMEX It benefited from special visibility into user orders, including hidden orders, that ordinary participants did not have access to, creating a structural advantage for the platform itself.
The two lead plaintiffs reported a total loss of approximately 622.66 Bitcoins, valued at approximately $40.7 million at the time of filing.
BKX Services claims losses of approximately 305.81 BTC, while Namdar claims losses of approximately 316.86 BTC Bitcoinlargely due to a series of purges.
The complaint alleges that many other users have experienced similar victimization. Bitcoin He said there were losses and that customers would never have used the platform if they had known about the alleged internal desk.
According to the application, BitMEX It collected more than $1 billion in transaction fees between November 2014 and October 2024.
During the same period, the flagship XBTUSD perpetual contract generated over $2 trillion in notional volume.
One of the most prominent accusations is that the internal office systematically profits from client liquidations while also increasing its fee income.
case It also revisits the dramatic market crash of March 13, 2020, when approximately $800 million in leveraged positions were liquidated.
Plaintiffs claim many traders fail to reach this level platform Due to the outages, the alleged insider operation continued uninterrupted, allowing the exchange to generate additional profits through fees, liquidations, and growth. insurance fund.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to certify the matter as a class action and return the customers’ Bitcoins.
They also seek compensatory damages, punitive damages, legal costs, interest and other damages.
The timing of the lawsuit is remarkable: It came just a day after the trial BitMEX announced that it was closing its foreign exchange operations.
The new lawsuit follows previous regulatory actions against the platform in 2020. WE Authorities pursued the company for allegedly failing to comply with anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act requirements.
But this latest action focuses specifically on how the exchange manages customer order flow behind the scenes.
As the case progresses, long-standing questions about transparency and fairness in centralized crypto will be tested derivatives platforms.
for old BitMEX Users who have experienced significant purges, lawsuits offers A potential way to recover assets they believe were lost under unfair circumstances. The defendants have not yet filed their formal response and the allegations have not been proven in court.
