The company, whose founders were the recipients of a White House pardon last year, announced the closure on its website Thursday (July 20), urging customers to withdraw their funds from the platform before the Sept. 23 shutdown.

“Following a strategic review of the business and the broader crypto industry, the board of HDR Global Trading Limited, owner and operator of BitMEX, has decided to close the exchange,” the announcement said. “This comes with a heavy heart for all of us at the company and has not been taken lightly.”

Launched in 2014, BitMEX bills itself as the creator of the 100x leverage perpetual swap,…