Cryptocurrency Exchange BitMart Announces Closure, Trading to Cease August 26
Following a sharp decline in its BMX token value and numerous user complaints about withdrawal processing delays, BitMart cryptocurrency exchange has announced it will shut down operations, with complete closure scheduled for January.
The cryptocurrency exchange BitMart has announced plans to cease operations, with all trading services scheduled to terminate on Aug. 26, followed by a complete shutdown of the platform on Jan. 31, 2027.
"After a careful evaluation of the Company's operating conditions, market environment, and future strategic direction, BitMart has made the difficult decision to commence an orderly wind-down of its trading platform operations," the company stated in an announcement released on Sunday.
According to the closure timeline, BitMart has already halted new user registrations and deposit functionality, while futures trading capabilities have been switched to reduce-only mode and spot trading markets are no longer processing new order submissions.
The exchange becomes part of an expanding roster of cryptocurrency trading platforms announcing closures in recent months. This includes BitMEX and Dango, both of which revealed earlier this week their intentions to discontinue their respective trading platform services.
BMX sinks amid withdrawal complaints
The exchange's proprietary token, BMX, experienced a dramatic decline of almost 70% in value as platform users encountered and reported delays in processing their withdrawal requests.
At the time of publication, BMX was changing hands at approximately $0.09464, representing a nearly 70% decrease from its late Friday price of roughly $0.31. The digital asset bottomed out at $0.1058 in the early hours of Saturday before continuing its downward trajectory.
Multiple platform users took to X to share experiences of withdrawal processing times exceeding normal expectations, with certain individuals alleging that their Tether USDt (USDT) withdrawal requests had been stuck in pending status for extended periods.
According to information from Arkham, cryptocurrency wallets associated with BitMart contained approximately $71 million in digital assets as of Sunday, representing a decrease from the roughly $102 million recorded on July 6. The holdings included approximately $41.5 million in WFI tokens from stablecoin banking platform WeFi, while the monitored wallets contained around $91,000 in USDT.
Within its shutdown announcement, BitMart indicated that certain withdrawal requests may undergo additional compliance and security verification procedures, which could result in longer processing durations.
The exchange did not provide a response to Cointelegraph's request for comment prior to publication.
BMX? BMEX? BitMEX?
A number of users on the X platform also seemed to mix up BitMart and its BMX token with the BitMEX exchange.
On Saturday, a member of the Mandarin-speaking cryptocurrency community on X, known as "Brother Lu," highlighted the price decline of BMX while offering speculation regarding potential causes.
"The whole internet was posting yesterday that it was shutting down on Sept. 30. Did you just wake up?" responded another X user, based on a machine translation.
The Sept. 30 date mentioned did not align with the Sept. 23 closure date that BitMEX had announced on Thursday. BMEX, BitMEX's native token, plummeted 90% in value shortly following their announcement.
Numerous additional users within the Mandarin-speaking cryptocurrency community similarly conflated BMX with BitMEX.
Whether this confusion had any measurable effect on BMX trading activity was not immediately apparent.