BitMEX launched its BitMEX Spot Exchange on May 17, allowing individual and institutional investors to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) (ETH). At the time of launch, the exchange provides seven cryptocurrency pairs: BTC, ETH, Chainlink (LINK), Uniswap (UNI), Polygon (MATIC), Axie Infinity (AXS), and ApeCoin (APE), all of which are traded against the Tether stablecoin (USDT).
Alexander Höpner, CEO of BitMEX, stated:
“Today, BitMEX is one step closer to providing our users with a full crypto ecosystem to buy, sell, and trade their favourite digital assets. We will not rest as we aim to deliver more features, more trading pairs, and more ways for our clients to take part in the crypto revolution.”
In February 2022, BitMEX founders Arthur Hayes and Hong Konger Benjamin Delo pleaded guilty to breaking the Bank Secrecy Act. In March, the court sentenced the three co-founders of the crypto derivatives exchange to pay a total of $30 million in civil monetary penalties.
Following a failed takeover of the German bank Bankhaus von der Heyd, the company allegedly laid off roughly 75 people, or a quarter of its workforce, in April.
The BitMEX Spot Exchange was launched with the goal of becoming one of the top 10 largest spot exchanges in the world. According to the release, the business chose to launch its own spot exchange last year in response to increased crypto trading demand from its current user base.
It is one of the world’s largest and oldest crypto trading platforms, was founded in 2014, roughly six years after Bitcoin was established. Unlike spot exchanges, BitMEX focuses on derivatives, allowing users to purchase and sell contracts such as futures, options, and perpetuals on a variety of crypto assets.
According to CoinMarketCap data, BitMEX is one of the top 30 largest derivatives crypto trading platforms at the time of writing, with a daily trading volume of $841 million. As of 2020, it was rated with Binance as one of the largest derivatives marketplaces by open interest.
