Bitmex (short for “Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange”) is the largest Bitcoin margin trading platform in the world, with more Bitcoin/USD liquidity than any other platform. The exchange is based in Singapore and its current CEO is Arthur Hayes, who worked at Citibank prior to dedicating his life to cryptocurrency trading. 

Apart from being a leader in trading volume, Bitmex also boasts an impressive security track record because it has never had a security breach of any kind. That’s in part thanks to its proprietary audit engine, which performs 100 audits per second, constantly auditing the balances and history of all accounts.

While Bitmex only accepts Bitcoin, it offers the option to purchase futures contracts for other cryptocurrencies with Bitcoin, giving its users the chance to swim in the turbulent waters of alternative cryptocurrencies (also known as altcoins) without fully exposing themselves to the risk associated with their ownership. 

It’s important to keep in mind that Bitmex allows very high leverage on margin trading (up to 100x on Bitcoin futures). In some cases, this can be a useful tool for experienced traders, but it also comes with very significant risk, so inexperienced traders should be very cautious. Also shorting Bitcoin with only 1x leverage on Bitmex acts effectively as moving from Bitcoin back into dollars but does not trigger a capital gains taxable event.

Note: The links on this page, including the Bitmex logo at the top, are referral links that lead to the sign up page, automatically filling in our referral code. Using our Bitmex referral code, people receive a 10% discount on trading fees for the first 6 months, and we receive a small commission that helps us keep providing our services for free.