Celsius estate sues BitMEX for $495M over 2020 crash losses
Regulation & Gov ·
The bankruptcy estate of the collapsed lender is seeking $495M and 6,360 BTC from BitMEX, alleging the exchange's conduct during the March 2020 market crash caused outsized losses on Celsius positions.
The lawsuit centers on liquidations that hit Celsius accounts during the sharp Bitcoin price collapse of March 2020, a period marked by extreme volatility across crypto markets. According to the claim, Celsius suffered losses tied to BitMEX's platform behavior at the time, despite BitMEX having marketed itself around delta-neutral strategies designed to limit directional risk exposure for large clients. The estate is now challenging whether those marketing representations matched how the exchange actually handled liquidations during the crisis.
The filing arrives as part of a broader pattern of litigation stemming from the Celsius collapse, which pushed the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2022 after its Earn product and rehypothecated lending model unraveled under market stress. Celsius has separately filed suit against Tether, demanding restitution of $2.4 billion worth of BTC over the handling of collateral, with Tether vowing to contest the litigation. That parallel case underscores the estate's continued effort to claw back value from counterparties tied to crypis-era trading relationships.
Corroborating coverage frames the BitMEX suit as alleging fraud and market manipulation, noting the timing fell roughly 11 days before a related BitMEX shutdown event, according to wublockchain.xyz. The proximity of that timeline is part of what the estate is using to argue the exchange's conduct was not incidental but tied to broader operational issues at the time.
What remains unresolved is how a court will weigh BitMEX's delta-neutral claims against the specific liquidation mechanics the estate says caused the losses, and whether the $495M and 6,360 BTC figures will hold up through discovery or be revised as the case proceeds. The outcome could also influence how other Celsius-era counterparties, already facing separate claims such as the Tether litigation, approach settlement or defense strategies. No response from BitMEX has been detailed in the available material, leaving open whether the exchange will contest the fraud and manipulation allegations directly or seek dismissal on other grounds.