Bitmex Review [2025] - 10 Things they don’t tell you

Bitmex is an exchange founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed. Bitmex offers margin (leverage) trading for cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

In this Bitmex review, I will cover the pros and cons of using a Bitmex, how Bitmex works and how to trade on Bitmex.

Bitmex has been around for a while and while there is no definite danger of your funds being stolen, but they have been involved in various shady stuff.

One of the weird things that never seems to happen anywhere else is the “Overload” problem that Bitmex has. Whenever there is high volatility in the cryptocurrency world, suddenly Bitmex’s platform stops working. You cannot edit, delete or create orders, sometimes the orders you already have inserted before stop working and you will get a massive slippage with your stop-loss for example.

There has been some speculation that Bitmex takes advantage of these high volatility times to give its users a worse stop-loss price or a so-called “slippage” on their orders. Personally, I have experienced this issue multiple times and that is one of the reasons why I have stopped using Bitmex altogether and moved to Bybit. To read our full Bybit review, click here.

On Bitmex you do not actually trade any cryptocurrencies but rather an index that follows the price of these trading pairs closely. On Bitmex the tradeables are called “contracts”. Contracts have different values on each trading pair.

The maximum leverage you can use on Bitmex depends on the trading pair. For BTC/USD the maximum leverage available is 100x.

Using high leverage can be very profitable even when trading with small amounts, but the risk of losing all of your collateral (or funds) is even greater.

You can change the leverage used on Bitmex, by sliding the “Leverage slider” or just choosing the “Cross leverage” option, which calculates the leverage for you and uses all of your balance as collateral.

The liquidity on Bitmex is generally great unless there is a time of high volatility, then all of the liquidity suddenly disappears for no reason.

Bitmex also offers a paper trading platform, testnet, - platform where you can try trading with play money.

Bitmex has trading pairs for the following cryptocurrencies:

Bitmex only accepts Bitcoin as a deposit and withdrawal currency. All trades require Bitcoin as collateral and your profits or losses for trade are also shown in Bitcoin.

Bitmex handles withdrawals once a day at 13:00 UTC and their withdrawal fees (for Bitcoin network) are rather expensive compared to some of its competitors.

Bitmex has the following fee structure:

That means Bitmex actually pays you to use maker orders that provide liquidity to the order book.

Bitmex accepts traders from all over the world, except for the following countries:

If you are from one of the prohibited countries then take a look at our Kraken review and Binance review for alternative trading platforms. If you do decide to ignore the fact that your country is prohibited from using Bitmex then be careful as they can and will close your account if they find out.

Bitmex has been around for a while and the customer funds that they hold have never been hacked. Unfortunately, there have been data leaks - all of Bitmex’s customer e-mails were leaked in November 2019.

It has also been rumored that Bitmex has a secret trading desk, that trades against Bitmex’s customers. These claims have never been verified or confirmed, but it is certainly worrying.

Customer support is not one of Bitmex’s strengths. You can contact their customer support personal using the live chat available on their website or via e-mail.

Bitmex has had many weird “liquidation” wicks that wipe out positions traders due to a system malfunction. Bitmex has never refunded its customers, which is a risk you have to consider when using their platform.

Fortunately, they have a rather good knowledge desk, where they have explained all the specifics about the platform and how it works. You can quickly familiarise yourself with their different products, order types, etc.

Bitmex might seem scary and confusing at first, but you will quickly learn all of its quirks and features.

While trading on Bitmex can be very profitable, I advise you to start out small and see if trading suits you first. You do not want to lose all your money on your first day - and it is very easy to lose your money on Bitmex.

Personally, I would rather use some of Bitmex’s competitors such as Bybit or Deribit.