Celsius Estate Sues BitMEX Over $490 Million Bitcoin Liquidations

The Celsius estate has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, accusing BitMEX and five affiliated entities of fraud, market manipulation, and wrongful liquidations during the March 2020 market crash.

Key Allegations

Celsius claims BitMEX seized 1,325.84 BTC from its collateral on March 12, 2020, and an additional 5,034.33 BTC from the investment fund JST the following day. The estate alleges the exchange controlled liquidation pricing, the liquidation engine, and the insurance fund that collected proceeds.

Liquidation Practices Under Scrutiny

The complaint states that some liquidation sell orders were executed at prices more than 24% below the next‑best ask on the platform, and that Bitcoin traded at lower prices on BitMEX than on competing exchanges during the sell‑off. BitMEX experienced two distributed denial‑of‑service attacks on March 13, 2020, which the estate cites as evidence that forced selling suppressed Bitcoin’s price.

Damages Sought

Celsius seeks actual damages of at least 6,360.16 BTC or its current market value, the return of the seized Bitcoin, statutory and punitive damages, any profits BitMEX earned from the liquidations, and reimbursement of legal fees.

Context and Related Actions

The lawsuit was filed on September 12, 2026, eleven days before BitMEX is scheduled to cease exchange services on September 23, 2026. A separate class‑action lawsuit filed in July alleges forced liquidations of 622.66 BTC and claims an internal trading desk accessed private customer data during server freezes, which BitMEX has called “opportunistic.”