Audit Reveals $7M Asset Shortfall at Tether-Supported Orionx, Exchange to Close
Chilean exchange Orionx, which secured Tether investment in 2025, is initiating permanent shutdown following discovery of asset discrepancies and criminal charges filed against founding executives.
A Chilean cryptocurrency exchange called Orionx, which received financial backing from USDt stablecoin provider Tether, has announced it will cease operations following the discovery of a significant multimillion-dollar problem related to its custody of digital assets.
The platform revealed it initiated procedures for permanent shutdown after forensic auditors discovered that over $7 million worth of assets held in custody had been transferred to cryptocurrency wallets not under the company's control, based on a statement the company posted on X this past Thursday.
"Our sole priority now is to return as much of our clients' assets as possible," Orionx stated, while noting that the ability to make withdrawals has been temporarily halted.
The decision to wind down operations arrives merely 15 months following Tether's exclusive leadership of Orionx's Series A investment round as the stablecoin issuer sought to boost digital asset utilization throughout the Latin American region.
Orionx leaves timing of $7 million transfers unclear
The announcement from Orionx failed to clarify the specific timeframe during which the transfers exceeding $7 million took place or provide details about how the irregularity was first discovered.
In an effort to meet requirements under Chile's Fintech Law, Orionx initiated an operational assessment during 2025 and engaged financial experts to assist with the process, as reported by La Tercera, a leading Chilean news publication, which cited the company's filed criminal complaint.
According to the complaint, on Aug. 27, the exchange's chief operating officer Thomas Mac Millan identified a "significant mismatch" when comparing balance figures shown in Orionx's internal systems against the digital assets physically maintained in custody arrangements.
Following this discovery, an internal examination was conducted, after which Orionx retained an independent forensic auditor to perform a detailed comparison of the company's internal records against information that could be independently confirmed through blockchain analysis. The external audit revealed that balance amounts shown within Orionx's operational systems were greater than the actual digital assets located at its designated custody wallet addresses for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP and Polygon (POL).
According to reports, the criminal complaint makes allegations that digital assets were moved away from Orionx's custody wallets during the period spanning 2018 through 2021, with some transfers going to accounts maintained on different cryptocurrency trading platforms.
Orionx accuses co-founders, who deny wrongdoing
The exchange announced that on Wednesday it submitted a criminal complaint targeting former company executives Roberto Zibert and Joaquín Díaz, who both served as co-founders and reportedly maintained access privileges to the organization's cryptocurrency custody infrastructure.
According to La Tercera's reporting, the complaint contains allegations that a wallet address linked to Díaz was the recipient of more than $1.5 million distributed across 14 separate transfer transactions, while a separate wallet address allegedly obtained 187 Ether tokens, in excess of 4.1 million USDt (USDT) and 200,000 USDC transferred from Orionx's holdings.
Both Zibert and Díaz have rejected the accusations, asserting that they never engaged in any actions contrary to the interests of the platform's customers and maintaining that the actual cause behind Orionx's shortage of assets has not been determined.
Tether backed Orionx in 2025
Established in Chile during 2017, Orionx evolved from its origins as a consumer-focused cryptocurrency exchange into a comprehensive platform providing cryptocurrency payment solutions and financial services across Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico.
The investment from Tether into Orionx occurred in June 2025, with the stablecoin company serving as the exclusive lead investor in the exchange's Series A capital raising round, according to an archived copy of Tether's public announcement. The original announcement has since been removed from Tether's official website.
Cointelegraph reached out to both Tether and Orionx requesting comment on the situation but had not received any response prior to publication.