BitMEX has settled and delisted XBTUSD, closing the Bitcoin contract it launched on May 13, 2016 and billed as the world’s first perpetual swap. More than a decade after its debut, the product leaves behind a market structure that now underpins much of crypto derivatives trading.

The delisting comes just ahead of BitMEX’s own planned shutdown on September 23. While the original contract is gone, the perpetual futures model it introduced remains widely used across the industry and is now starting to attract interest beyond crypto.

A contract built without expiry

XBTUSD was designed to let traders take Bitcoin exposure without the fixed settlement dates used in traditional futures. Instead of rolling into new contracts as old ones expired, traders stayed in a single continuous market, helping avoid liquidity being split across multiple maturities.

To keep the contract aligned with Bitcoin’s spot price, BitMEX used a funding mechanism that shifted payments between longs and shorts when positioning became too one-sided. The product also became known for high leverage. At launch, users could take up to $100 in Bitcoin exposure for every $1 of margin, and BitMEX later increased the cap to 250x for traders using its Leverage Booster feature in April 2024.

From BitMEX experiment to industry standard

According to the source article, the idea for the instrument grew out of discussions among Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed over why a market that trades around the clock should rely on expiring futures contracts. The resulting product became the template for perpetual futures that were later adopted across the sector.

That structure spread well beyond BitMEX. Binance, Bybit, OKX and Hyperliquid all run versions of perpetual contracts, and BitMEX says the category now accounts for more than 75% of total crypto trading volume. Even with XBTUSD removed, the format it popularized remains central to how crypto derivatives markets operate.

Closing message and ongoing disputes

In its closing post, BitMEX wrote: “12 years. 0 customer funds lost. Every bull and bear cycle crypto has ever had.” The source article notes that this claim refers to customer funds lost through security breaches rather than losses tied to trading activity.

That distinction matters because Celsius sued five BitMEX entities on September 12 over 6,360 Bitcoin it says were lost during forced liquidations in the March 2020 market crash. The suit was cited in the source article as an example of losses outside the scope of BitMEX’s security-related claim.

What happens next

BitMEX itself is set to shut down on September 23, but the perpetual swap design continues to expand. The format is moving into other markets as well as remaining dominant in crypto.

The source article says Kalshi filed with US regulators in August to offer stock index perpetual futures. It also says Kraken’s parent company plans to bring Hyperliquid perpetuals to US traders through a regulated venue. Those efforts suggest the instrument first popularized by XBTUSD may continue to spread even after the original contract and its exchange disappear.

Source: beincrypto.com