BitMart to Wind Down Trading Platform as Global CEO Says He Was Not Consulted
Crypto exchange BitMart has started winding down its trading platform. The company is gradually suspending new registrations, deposits, and orders. Full trading will stop on August 26.
Wind-Down Timeline and Process
BitMart published a notice at 9:40 p.m. ET on Saturday. It said the decision followed an evaluation of operating conditions, the market environment, and future strategy.
All spot, futures, and other trading services will end at 01:00 UTC on August 26. The exchange plans to cease platform operations at 15:59 UTC on January 31, 2027. Users will keep login access afterward for a period to view records and request withdrawals.
Withdrawals remain open. BitMart advises users to close positions by 01:00 UTC and submit withdrawal requests by 05:00 UTC on August 26. Later requests will follow a separate process. Some may face extra identity, source-of-funds, sanctions, or security checks.
The exchange has also put futures accounts into reduce-only mode and stopped new spot orders. Copy trading, grid trading, API trading, BitMart Earn, staking, lending, and Launchpad products are being phased out.
Market Reaction
BMX, BitMart’s native token, traded near $0.066 on Sunday morning. It fell nearly 60% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.
Global CEO Says He Was Not Consulted
Nenter (Nathan) Chow, BitMart’s global CEO, posted on X after the announcement. He said the company told him on July 24 that his employment was ending and that offboarding would start at once.
Chow stated he has played “no role in the management or decision-making of the company” since that date. He was not consulted on the wind-down and only learned of it when it became public. He has not received a confirmed final departure date and will not comment further.
Chow said his main concern is for BitMart’s users and employees. He urged customers to rely only on official channels and to act on the notice without delay. BitMart had not publicly responded to his statement at the time of publication.
Chow joined from Animoca Ventures, where he was a partner. He became global CEO in April 2025 when founder Sheldon Xia moved to group president.
Abrupt Reversal from Recent Messaging
The wind-down reverses BitMart’s public stance from earlier this month. In a first-half report, the exchange said assets under management in its asset-management business grew about 256% period-over-period. Chow outlined plans to expand prediction markets, tokenized assets, and the regulatory footprint.
“BitMart is eight years old this year,” Chow said in the report. “We intend to be here for the next eight, and we are building accordingly.”
Only a month earlier, BitMart said it had secured an Australian Financial Services Licence. It planned to expand local compliance, legal, and operations teams. At that time the company claimed more than 13 million users across over 180 countries and territories. The wind-down notice did not explain what changed.
Earlier Issues and Context
In a May 23 statement, BitMart addressed claims that users could not withdraw. It said its risk system had intercepted 239 linked accounts accused of farming platform subsidies through abusive trading. The exchange said operations were running normally.
It also promised a proof-of-reserves report once security and risk-control issues were resolved. No full report appeared on its website as of Sunday, though the exchange had previously shared several hot-wallet addresses.
