For a platform that once dominated crypto trading, it is a quiet ending. But for the industry, it is also a familiar one — and the story of why BitMEX faded says a great deal about how the crypto exchange business actually works today.

The end of an era

Founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed, BitMEX invented the perpetual swap — a futures contract with no expiry date that went on to become the most heavily traded instrument in all of crypto. At its peak, the exchange processed billions of dollars in daily volume, its liquidation engine could move the entire Bitcoin market, and its 100x leverage became shorthand for the wild side of digital assets. For several years, “the funding rate on BitMEX” was the closest…