BitMEX to Address Overload Problem, Fix Perpetual Swaps Function Before Adding New Features

BitMEX is taking its system overload problem seriously by halting the development of any new products until upgrades can be made to address this issue. This issue is nothing new for the exchange as evident from the following Tweet.

An update to our "System Overload" policy: https://t.co/EesWy8aj3i

— BitMEX (@BitMEXdotcom) December 3, 2017

The truth is Bitmex is really popular with by far the most exchange volume of any of the bitcoin futures markets. They have a very real technical challenge which so far they’ve not been able to overcome: How to deal with a flood of users when the price of bitcoin becomes volatile. Their system essentially gets DDoS’ed by their own users.

Basically, you’ll need to set up your entire trade, including stop and take profit orders completely into the system. This way when the system becomes unusable during a price volley you’ll already have your orders in and they will execute.

The exchange had earlier implemented a cap on the maximum number of requests that can enter the engine queue, after which new requests are rejected until the queue has shrunk. Many users experienced this as the “System Overload” message (also known as “Load Shedding”).

A reoccurring theme seen in the BitMEX community is the jokes around the platform’s endless stream of “server overload” prompts. Although they may seem innocent enough, Hasu has claimed that the startup may be giving preferential access to certain traders during periods of overload. The critic also claimed that users can arbitrage and “trigger a chain of liquidations” during an overload, which evidently isn’t right.

CEO Arthur Hayes noted that BitMEX doesn’t make bank when customers are liquidated or through trading against its users, but rather, through other profit streams. On the “server overload” issues, Hayes alluded to the fact that an influx of trades on the platform has hampered its server, noting that his firm is doing its best to fix those issues.