From 14:29 to 15:26 UTC today, August 4, 2018, access to BitMEX.com and the BitMEX API was severely impaired.
A large spike in load caused an overload in a critical internal system used for rate limiting and sessions, creating a feedback loop in that system where data was recalculated more often then usual, exacerbating the load.
The feedback loop has been fixed and systems have returned back to normal. BitMEX engineers are working to separate these systems entirely, so that these particular non-critical operations cannot affect processing time of critical trade requests and logins.
We apologize for the disruption. BitMEX engineers have disabled the cause of the feedback loop and are working the weekend to separate these critical systems so that such an event cannot occur again.