BitMart weighs restructuring and business resumption after wind-down

BitMart recently told its users that it is weighing a “potential restructuring and business resumption plan.”

The company announced that it would begin winding down operations on July 26 and has since left many of its 12 million registered users waiting on their frozen funds.

Will BitMart reverse its shutdown?  

BitMart recently posted a note, titled “Update Regarding BitMart’s Potential Restructuring and Business Resumption Plan,” on its X account. The note mentions the exchange’s announcement made on July 26 that it would be winding down its trading platform and thanked the community for its patience during the period. 

Cryptopolitan reported that the shutdown of the platform was due to operating conditions, the wider market, and its strategic direction. New account creation was stopped the same day the shutdown was announced. Deposits were switched off, and fresh orders were disabled. BMX, the exchange’s own ERC-20 token, dropped close to 60% within a day on the news. 

Despite the exchange possibly reversing its decision, the rest of the timeline it laid out stands. For instance, spot and futures trading is set to end on August 26, 2026, with the platform scheduled to close entirely on January 31, 2027. 

Withdrawals are meant to stay open through that final date, though Cryptopolitan has reported that users are facing delays, extra compliance and security checks. 

Is BitMart solvent? 

The talk of restarting the exchange comes while people still do not know if Bitmart has enough money to pay everyone back. On August 8, founder Sheldon Xia posted in Chinese that the exchange “has not run away” and “will not run away.” 

He also told users not to trust screenshots or leaks from people who say they are current or former staff, but he did not provide any numbers, dates, or a proof of reserves report. That same day was the deadline for U.S. customers to withdraw their crypto. 

Notably, the doubts about Bitmart started before the shutdown was even announced. On August 10, Whale Alert reported that a co-founder of OpenGradient said his market-making team could not take their money out of Bitmart. He openly asked if the exchange had enough money to cover all user deposits. 

Bitmart has said that withdrawals are still being processed, but it has still not released the proof of reserves it promised on May 23. Back then, it blamed earlier withdrawal problems on 239 accounts it said were abusing trading subsidies and said it would publish reserve figures “at an appropriate time.”

Bitmart also has a history of security issues, including one incident in December 2021, when hackers stole about $150 million from one of its online wallets, known as a hot wallet. 

Why did staff hijack BitMart’s X account? 

On August 17, people claiming to be employees took control of BitMart’s Chinese X account and addressed Xia and partner Yi Li directly. The group laid out five demands for the founders to fulfill and an August 19 deadline. 

The group requests that the founders account for where user money went, explain why withdrawals remain blocked, open all related accounts, trusts, and affiliated entities to investigation, pay staff their outstanding wages, and deliver a workable repayment plan.

Xia rejected the posts as fabricated, stating that the Chinese account had been compromised and was not run by current employees. He claimed that he had gathered evidence, planned a police report, and would send a lawyer’s letter to X seeking technical and data checks. 

He added that customer assets take priority and that employees get no special standing. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT pushed back, arguing that anyone holding real liquidity should just return the money rather than post vague statements.

Bitmart’s own numbers also raise questions. CoinMarketCap shows the exchange has about $272.6 million in daily trading volume, but Bitmart reports having only about $5.36 million in reserves. Most of that is in its own token, BMX ($3.88 million), plus roughly $677,000 in Ethereum (ETH). 

On August 14, a rival exchange called MEXC published a report from a security company called Hacken showing that it has more than enough money to cover all user deposits, with 288% of the Bitcoin it needs.

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