BitMEX is shutting down, and its token crashed with it. The BMEX price fell nearly 90% in one day after the exchange set a September 23 closing date.

The token now trades near $0.0068, according to live data. Its whole supply is worth just $680,000.

BMEX Price Falls With Its Exchange

Exchange tokens live and die with their platform. BMEX is a clear example.

BitMEX launched it in 2022. People who staked the token paid lower trading fees and earned other perks.

Those perks only work while the exchange is open. Once BitMEX confirmed its shutdown, the token lost its point.

BMEX now trades about 98% below its price a year ago. It hit a record low near $0.0033 on Thursday, then bounced back a little.

The Competition Stands to Gain

BitMEX changed crypto trading forever. In 2016 it launched the first perpetual swap, a trade with no end date.

Traders loved it. They could keep positions open as long as they liked, with up to 100x leverage. That multiplied both profits and losses.

Rivals soon copied the design. Perpetuals now drive most crypto trading. But BitMEX could not keep its early lead.

Then regulators caught up. US authorities charged BitMEX in 2020. A year later it paid $100 million to the CFTC and FinCEN over weak controls.

Founder Arthur Hayes even pleaded guilty to breaking US anti-money-laundering rules. While BitMEX dealt with the fallout, rivals raced ahead.

“BitMEX pioneered the perpetual swap and became the world’s #1 crypto exchange. Used by millions, it inspired the exchanges that followed — including Bybit. Regulators came for them, but the product outlived the backlash. Today perps are the beating heart of crypto, going legal in more countries every year (EU, Dubai VARA, HK, and more). End of an era. Respect to the legends who built it,” said Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit.

Today the winners are clear. Binance leads perpetual trading by volume, with OKX and Bybit close behind. Deribit rules crypto options.

On-chain venues are rising fast too. Hyperliquid leads perpetual DEX trading. dYdX draws institutional traders to decentralized markets.

BitMEX had already faded to almost nothing. CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said it handled about $84 million in Bitcoin (BTC) futures in one day. That was near 0.08% of the market.

Now its traders need a new home. Where they land will show who really won the market BitMEX built.

Source: BeInCrypto