BitMEX Shuts Down After 11 Years, Imposes Monthly Fee on Leftover Balances

The closure removes one of the oldest venues tied to the perpetual swap, a contract structure now standard across crypto derivatives, so the significance is less about lost liquidity than about the shrinking pool of legacy exchanges. The monthly fee on leftover balances is the sharper detail: it turns inactive accounts into a cost, creating a quiet incentive to withdraw rather than linger. Whether that fee pushes stragglers to move funds, and where those balances migrate, is the open question worth watching.