The bankruptcy estate of Celsius Network has officially taken BitMEX to court. Represented by the Blockchain Recovery Investment Consortium as litigation administrator, the estate is demanding the return of 6,360.17 BTC. Based on a Bitcoin price valuation of $77,800 per coin at the time of filing, the claim is valued at $495 million. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on September 12, 2026.
The scope of the lawsuit spans multiple jurisdictions. Celsius named five BitMEX-affiliated entities as defendants: HDR Global Trading, ABS Global Trading, Shine Effort, 100x Holdings, and HDR Global Services. The operational network of these five entities spans jurisdictions including Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Seychelles, and the United States.
Two Days That Wiped Out 6,360 BTC
The roots of the dispute trace back six years to March 2020, when the world first reacted to the COVID-19 outbreak. Trading positions held by Celsius and its partner, investment fund JST, were originally designed to generate yield as long as Bitcoin’s price remained stable or trended upward. However, mass panic in global financial markets caused by the pandemic sent cryptocurrency prices plunging within hours.
Amid the market turmoil on March 12, 2020, BitMEX moved to liquidate Celsius’s position, resulting in the loss of 1,325.84 BTC. A day later, investment fund JST suffered a similar blow, with the March 13 liquidation wiping out 5,034.33 BTC from its portfolio. JST ultimately assigned all claims regarding the losses to the Celsius estate to pursue joint recovery.
Allegations of Collateral Seizure
The crux of the dispute centers on what happened after the positions were forcibly closed. The estate alleges that BitMEX did not merely close user positions to cover trading losses from the market crash. Instead, it claims the exchange seized Bitcoin collateral that should have legally been returned to users once the liquidation process concluded.
This legal action adds to a growing list of disputes surrounding Celsius’s asset recovery efforts. The court claims include fraud, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment. For the Celsius estate, the lawsuit is an effort to recover assets it contends were lost not due to market failure, but because of the exchange’s unilateral retention during the peak of the crisis.
Reported by crypto.news.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
