BitMEX adds native SegWit support for bitcoin withdrawals, helping users save on transaction fees

Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX has added support for native SegWit (bech32) addresses for bitcoin withdrawals, helping users save on transaction fees.

Announcing the news Thursday, BitMEX said the native SegWit support is currently enabled only for bitcoin withdrawals and not deposits. "When depositing to BitMEX, you must still send to our Pay to Script Hash (P2SH) format addresses, due to our multi-signature wallet solution," it said.

In October, Bitfinex exchange also added native SegWit support for bitcoin withdrawals. SegWit is an optional protocol upgrade to blockchain networks, which help accommodate more transactions in one block (1MB size) and thereby help lower costs per transaction. Depending on several parameters, Segwit transactions are at least 25% smaller in size when compared to legacy transactions. The Block recently reported that the percentage of transactions that use SegWit jumped to about 55% in September from below 40% in months before that.

Looking ahead, BitMEX said it will enable SegWit (non-native) support to its wallet. “SegWit can result in significant blockweight savings of around 25% to 40%, however in the case of BitMEX, the savings will be even higher. BitMEX would benefit from a blockweight saving of around 65% by adopting SegWit,” said the exchange.