BitMEX announces changes to customer BTC addresses

BitMEX says the update will not bring a ‘big change’ to its wallet security as the signature scheme is already used for hot withdrawal processing.

Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX is changing all of its customer Bitcoin (BTC) deposit addresses starting Nov. 1, 2023.

In a blog announcement on Oct. 30, the Seychelles-based crypto trading platform said it will change its current format for BTC addresses to pay-to-witness-public-key-hash (P2WPKH, also known as native SegWit), suggesting all customer addresses will soon get addresses with the bc1 prefix.

BitMEX says the change will allow it to “reduce withdrawal fees” for users and “improve our use of Bitcoin block space.” The company also noted the signature scheme “is already being used for our hot withdrawals processing,” meaning the update “will not bring a big change” to its wallet security.

“There may be rare occasions of delays in the processing of deposits or withdrawals, where their execution may take longer than normal.”

BitMEX

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Starting from Jan. 1, 2024, BitMEX will no longer credit funds sent to the old addresses in real-time, adding it will still work with these addresses, but “periodically.” The exchange urged users to update their exchange wallet addresses stored in any address book on other services and whitelist the new addresses.

The change of deposit addresses is nothing new for exchanges as they do that to keep up with the latest updates. Binance, for instance, also disabled multiple old deposit addresses for multiple blockchain networks, including Ethereum (ETH) and TRON (TRX), in April 2023 as part of its infrastructure upgrade.

Read more: Former BitMEX CEO says Bitcoin will rally to $750,000 by 2026

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