TL;DR
BitMEX is facing a lawsuit in the UK seeking the return of 324.8 BTC, worth approximately $27.2 million.
The plaintiff is challenging 1,053 perpetual swap trades executed between 2018 and 2022 and accuses the exchange of offering regulated financial services without a license.
Lawyers involved in the case warn that other British traders could file similar claims worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
BitMEX is facing a lawsuit in London’s Commercial Court seeking approximately $27.2 million in Bitcoin . The case was brought by a former user who accuses the exchange of offering financial derivatives in the UK without the required authorization.
The plaintiff, Lewis Barber , a British software engineer, is seeking the return of 324.8 BTC , valued at £20.4 million as of October 1, according to court documents cited by Decrypt and The Guardian.
The lawsuit targets HDR Global Trading , the company that operated BitMEX, which shut down its exchange operations in September 2026.
BitMEX Accused of Offering Perpetual Swaps Without Authorization
Between 2018 and 2022, Barber executed approximately 2,294 trades across five accounts on the platform. His lawsuit challenges the 1,053 trades that resulted in losses .
All involved perpetual swaps , derivatives similar to futures contracts but without an expiration date.
His lawyers argue that these transactions were subject to UK financial regulations and that BitMEX was not authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to offer them.
Barber is therefore seeking to have the contracts declared unenforceable under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 .
The lawsuit also accuses the exchange of deceit , alleging that it allowed British customers to trade despite being aware of its regulatory restrictions.
According to the court documents, BitMEX allowed users to select the UK as their country of residence and had conducted advertising campaigns targeting multiple markets.
In March 2020, the FCA publicly warned that the platform might be offering regulated investments without authorization.
Other Investors Could Seek Hundreds of Millions in Compensation
Seladore Legal , the law firm representing Barber, believes other British users may have traded under similar circumstances.
According to its estimates, potential claims could amount to hundreds of millions of pounds , although each case would depend on the individual trader’s transactions and circumstances.
The lawsuit has already been filed with the court but had not yet been formally served on HDR Global Trading. A BitMEX spokesperson stated that the company had not received any formal notice of the claim .
The exchange also faces a proposed class-action lawsuit in New York involving alleged Bitcoin theft and insider trading .
BitMEX shut down its exchange operations on September 23, 2026 . Previously, in January 2025, it was ordered to pay a $100 million penalty in the United States for violations of anti-money laundering laws.
Its co-founders, Arthur Hayes , Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed , who pleaded guilty in 2022 to violations of the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, were pardoned by Donald Trump in March 2025.
