Celsius Estate Sues BitMEX Over Lost Bitcoin Worth $481M

The bankruptcy estate of Celsius Network has filed a lawsuit against five BitMEX-related companies concerning 6,360.1666 Bitcoin (BTC) that were taken during two forced liquidations amid the market crash in March 2020.

Filed on September 12, the legal action comes just 11 days before BitMEX halts all trading permanently. The coins were lost while Celsius was under the leadership of founder Alex Mashinsky, who is now serving a 12-year prison sentence for fraud.

The Two Liquidations Central to the Dispute

A liquidation is the compulsory closure of a leveraged trade when its collateral becomes insufficient. On March 12, 2020, late in the evening, BitMEX closed a Bitcoin futures position belonging to Celsius, taking 1,325.8385 BTC.

Celsius had sent 350 BTC as extra margin at 23:47 UTC. BitMEX sent an email five minutes later acknowledging receipt of the transfer but noting it had not yet been confirmed. The position was liquidated prior to that confirmation.

A second liquidation hit JST Alpha 1, a Cayman Islands fund that Celsius had invested in, at 02:50 UTC on March 13. This resulted in the loss of another 5,034.3281 BTC. JST transferred its claims to Celsius in April 2025.

According to the filing, during that same minute the best available offer price on the contract dropped from $4,502 to $3,422. Celsius contends that this price movement cannot be logically explained by ordinary trading activity.

“Instead of maintaining an orderly market, BitMEX intentionally designed its platform and liquidation procedures to cause liquidations of collateral and defraud its own customers,” Celsius said in the complaint.

What the Estate Seeks Before September 23

The case was brought by the Blockchain Recovery Investment Consortium in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. This venture involving VanEck and GXD Labs was appointed in 2024 to recover Celsius assets for creditors.

The defendants named include HDR Global Trading, ABS Global Trading, Shine Effort, 100x Holdings and HDR Global Services. The nine counts cover allegations of fraud, price manipulation and replevin, which is a legal claim for the return of the property itself.

At Wednesday's Bitcoin price of $75,702, the coins are valued at approximately $481 million. The same recovery team secured a $299.5 million settlement from Tether last October.

BitMEX will forcibly close all remaining positions on September 23 at 04:00 UTC. The exchange has attributed its impending closure to a strategic review rather than insolvency, a hack or regulatory action.

None of the allegations have been proven in court, and BitMEX has yet to respond. Mashinsky, who was in charge of Celsius when the coins disappeared, was permanently banned from trading on US regulated derivatives markets in June.