Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX has announced the imminent launch of Bech32 deposits across the platform.

“We’re excited about this because it will help boost efficiency and lower withdrawal (Bitcoin network) fees,” noted the team on Thursday.

By leveraging the segwit’s witness discount, this upgrade will play a “major role” in reducing the withdrawal fees significantly on BitMEX. The new addresses will also reduce the exchange’s block weight usage by over 60% over time.

New BitMEX addresses have prefixes “bc1qmex” and “tb1qmex” for mainnet and testnet, respectively.

Bech32 addresses will be soon issued to all new BitMEX users, while current users will be migrated to new addresses in phases.

For the time being, P2SH address deposits will continue to be credited. Users are recommended to record their P2SH address securely for recordkeeping as once the upgrade is done, P2SH address details won’t be actively displayed.

BitMEX will be sharing more details with users directly through email.

The exchange aims to complete the rollout of new addresses by the end of Q2, i.e., June 31st, 2021.

BitMEX Mobile has already been updated to support Bech32 addresses effective immediately.

When a recipient’s address has been updated to Bech32, internal transfer to that account must go to the new native SegWit address to complete instantly and without a fee. And if noted updated, the withdrawal will go through the normal process.

“This is only the beginning of our latest push to better integrate the BitMEX platform with the latest Bitcoin technology and pass on the benefits to our users,” said BitMEX.

In other news, one of the founders of the exchange, Benjamin Delo, has surrendered to authorities to face charges of avoiding US anti-money laundering laws. Delo pleaded not guilty during the remote proceeding on Monday and was released on a $20 million bail bond.

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