‘God Access’ Recycled in Another Lawsuit Against BitMEX

In short, on Sept. 12, Blockchain Recovery Investment Consortium (BRIC), a joint venture of Vaneck and GXD Labs, sued five BitMEX entities in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, seeking to recover 6,360 BTC ($485 million) for Celsius’ former customers. The suit is essentially about two trading accounts that BitMEX closed during the COVID crash of March 12–13, 2020, when bitcoin plunged 50% to below $4,000.

Now, the plaintiffs claim that BitMEX’s own trading made the crash worse, while also alleging that a position holding Celsius’ bitcoin was closed at a bitcoin price that allegedly existed only on BitMEX.

Liquidation ‘Profit Center’

“Instead of maintaining an orderly market, BitMEX intentionally designed its platform and liquidation procedures to cause liquidations of collateral and defraud its own customers,” the lawsuit alleges, adding that the exchange “turned market crises into a profit center.”

On March 13, 2020, BitMEX went down for around 25 minutes, blaming distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on its systems, during which BTC jumped from around $3,900 to $5,300.

According to BRIC, when BitMEX resumed trading and liquidations against the stale book, it caused forced liquidation sell orders “to sweep down through a thin set of stale bids and execute at a price that existed nowhere but on BitMEX’s own broken book.”

The lawsuit also alleges that BitMEX’s own trading team could secretly see where customers would be forced out and trade against them.

Recycled Allegations

“On information and belief, the Insider Trading Desk had access and capabilities unavailable to ordinary customers; what others have referred to as “God Access”—real-time access to customer account, order-flow, execution, open-position, and liquidation information,” BRIC said. They added, “on information and belief,” that personnel associated with the Insider Trading Desk operated through anonymized “burner” email accounts and could trade on various crypto exchanges.

The same “God Access” and insider desk accusations were made in a separate lawsuit against BitMEX, filed by BKX Services, a Nevada corporation operating out of New York, and David Namdar.

It was filed the same day, July 23, that the exchange announced its shutdown. As reported by Bitcoin.com News, the plaintiffs seek class-action status and the recovery of 623 BTC lost to these forced liquidations.

Meanwhile, the Celsius-related lawsuit also alleges that the collateral from each liquidated trading position was transferred to BitMEX’s Insurance Fund, incentivizing the exchange to liquidate its clients’ positions.

Per the lawsuit, during March 12–13, 2020, the fund grew by 4,457 BTC and peaked at 37,836 BTC. However, back then, BitMEX itself said that the fund lost 2,606 BTC on March 13, emphasizing that the fund does not cover BitMEX’s running costs or contribute to the company’s profits.

Celsius’ Own Dark Past

However, this lawsuit also serves as a reminder that the collapsed crypto lender itself was making large and risky bets with borrowed money while telling its customers that it was making safe investments.

“The business model Celsius advertised and sold to its customers was not the business that Celsius actually operated,” court-appointed examiner Shoba Pillay concluded in January 2023, adding that the company “abandoned its promise of transparency from its start.”

Either way, traders have unsuccessfully sued BitMEX over its liquidations before. Meanwhile, in October 2025, BRIC said that Tether paid almost $300 million to settle a Celsius lawsuit.

BitMEX, which is set to stop trading on Sept. 23, has yet to react to the Celsius lawsuit. Bitcoin.com News has contacted BitMEX for comment.