BitMart stopped trading on 26 August. MEXC leaves the EEA on 13 September; BitMEX pays out until 23 September. Every wind-down, exit and takeover, dated.
12 min read·Updated 30 August 2026
Active wind-downs3 platformsBitMart · BitMEX · MEXC
Next deadline4 days3 September 2026 · MEXC
Critical riskWithdrawalsVerification is the bottleneck
If your exchange is winding down, the money is usually still there — but the window to move it closes in stages, and some of those stages are measured in hours. BitMart stops trading on 26 August 2026 at 01:00 UTC and accepts withdrawal requests until 05:00 that same morning: four hours. BitMEX goes reduce-only on the same day and pays out until 23 September, after which it charges the higher of $50 or 1% a year on whatever is left. AscendEX halted trading on 1 July 2026 and now handles withdrawals manually, with no guarantee of amount or timing. EXMO returned 70.6% of balances and issued tokens for the rest. Below is every platform we track, with its next hard deadline in UTC.
Wind-down board
Platforms with a wind-down under way · next hard deadline · times in UTC
Status of exchanges in wind-down, updated 23 August 2026.
Exchange
Status
Next deadline
Remaining
Withdrawals
AscendEXformerly BitMax · since 2018
Ceased
None — trading has been halted since 1 July 2026
n/a
Manual, no guarantee of amount or timing
BitMartsince 2017
Trading ceased Restructuring announced (uncertain)
Trading ceased on 26 Aug 2026; withdrawal window closed 05:00 UTC
n/a
Window closed; support-only from here, with no guarantees
MEXCleaving the EEA
Exit announced No MiCA licence; AFM warning since 2025
Close positions by 3 Sep; full EEA stop on 13 Sep 2026
14days
Withdraw funds before 13 Sep; fiat services suspended since March
BitMEXHDR Global Trading · since 2014
Wind-down under way
Reduce-only since 26 Aug; 11 perps settled early on 2 Sep 12:00 UTC; closure 23 Sep 04:00 UTC
29days
API withdrawals stop 28 Sep 04:00 UTC; after that, monthly, the higher of $50 or 1% a year on whatever is left
Binancefor EU-verified users
Left the EU
No end date communicated
indefinite
Balances remain withdrawable
EXMOsince 2014 · sanctioned
Stopped
EU withdrawal window closes around 23 Nov 2026
116days
70.6% of your balance; for the rest you received USDRecover tokens
Is your money on one of these platforms?
The order below is deliberate. In a wind-down the bottleneck is almost never trading — it is the withdrawal, and that jams on verification precisely when everyone wants one at the same time.
Complete your verification now, not at the point of withdrawal
Every exchange in wind-down tightens the checks on outgoing transactions: identity, device and IP checks, source of funds, sanctions screening. An incomplete profile is the most common reason a withdrawal stalls.
Close positions before reduce-only takes effect
Under reduce-only you can only reduce, not adjust. Open futures still in place on the end date are settled at the platform's mark or index price — at that point you decide nothing.
Withdraw everything, including dust
Small residual amounts cost more effort later than they are worth: after the closing date access often runs through a support form instead of the app.
Choose your next venue on licence, not on fee
For spot, a provider in the EU needs a MiCAR CASP licence; for perpetuals and equities it also needs a MiFID II licence. That is the first filter. Costs are the second.
The closures of 2026
Three exchanges stopped within four weeks. Per platform: the timeline, the facts that are established, and what it means for anyone who still has money there.
BitMEX Wind-down under way
Announced 23 July 2026 · reason: strategic review by owner HDR Global Trading
23 Jul 2026Closure announced; new registrations closed with immediate effect
nowNormal trading; close positions and withdraw
26 Aug 04:00Reduce-only — positions can only be reduced
23 Sep 04:00Platform closes for good
BitMEX is the heaviest loss for the derivatives market: the platform introduced the perpetual swap in 2016 and was for years the reference for the BTC perp. Owner HDR Global Trading Limited is pulling the plug after a strategic review.
The underlying reason is market share: BitMEX lost its perpetuals turnover to competitors and to the new generation of decentralised derivatives markets. In addition, a class action is under way from two investors who claim their positions were liquidated without justification — see our report Did BitMEX trade against customers?
For European traders the direct impact is limited — BitMEX did not serve the EU as a licensed party — but the effect on the market is not. The perp liquidity that sat here is moving to the remaining venues, and that is exactly where spreads and funding can move in the short term.
Reduce-only
26 Aug 2026, 04:00 UTC
Closure
23 Sep 2026, 04:00 UTC
Active since
2014 — 11 years
Legacy
Originator of the perpetual swap
What this means. Anyone still holding perps here has until 26 August to choose when and at what price to close. After that the platform determines the settlement. Pick a next venue on licence: in the EU perpetuals fall under MiFID II, and few providers hold that.
AscendEX Ceased
Ceased 1 July 2026 · reason: no MiCAR licence + failed liquidity transaction
1 Jul 2026Trading, deposits, staking and lending stopped
unknownPayout of remaining balances — no commitment on timing or amount
AscendEX is the only one of the three to name the MiCAR deadline explicitly as the cause. On 1 July 2026 the platform had no CASP licence and it ceased its services that same day. In the notice of 6 July the exchange also cited a strategic transaction that should have produced liquidity but where the counterparty did not deliver.
The difficulty lies in the wording on withdrawals: the exchange states that requests may be delayed, may require additional documentation, or may not be processed. It also leaves open the possibility of a formal insolvency procedure, under which the treatment of outstanding balances would fall. On-chain researchers observed in the run-up that the known hot wallets were almost empty of ETH, USDT, USDC and SOL.
Founded
2018, as BitMax
Earlier damage
$78m hack in December 2021
Withdrawals
Manual, no guarantee
MiCAR status
No CASP licence
What this means. This is the most severe category: no orderly wind-down with deadlines, but a stop without any commitment that you will get your balance back. Anyone who still has money here submits a withdrawal request and records the correspondence — should an insolvency procedure follow, documentation is the only thing that counts.
Announced 26 July 2026 · reason: business circumstances, market climate and strategic direction
26 Jul 01:30Registrations and deposits closed; futures to reduce-only; spot accepts no new orders
nowReduce positions and withdraw
26 Aug 01:00All trading stops — both spot and derivatives
before 9 SepPromised restructuring roadmap — uncertain
31 Jan 2027Platform closes for good (15:59)
The announcement came on a Sunday morning and gave no concrete reason: the exchange pointed to business circumstances, market climate and future strategic direction. No mention was made of insolvency, a hack or an enforcement measure.
What makes the case messy is the contrast with its own reporting nine days earlier. In the half-year report of 17 July, BitMart still reported growth in assets under management of around 256% compared with the previous quarter, a new prediction-market product and an Australian licence obtained in June. The global CEO also stated they had not been involved in the decision and had learned of it through the public announcement.
Withdrawals are formally open, but the throughput stands out. Analytics firm Lookonchain counted 58 wallets in the first 24 hours after the announcement that together withdrew around $805,000, with an eight-hour period inside that window in which not a single request was processed. The exchange's own token BMX lost more than 80% of its value in a week.
Update 18 August. The wind-down has publicly turned ugly: BitMart’s official Chinese X account carried an open letter to founder Sheldon Xia with five demands and a 19 August deadline; Xia calls the posts fabricated and the account hacked. Read the full story →
Update 23 August. BitMart says it is exploring a restructuring as an alternative to a full shutdown, with White & Case as legal adviser. It could involve a phased restart of some services and distributions to creditors; a roadmap has been promised before 9 September. Meanwhile the fight has not died down: users report blocked withdrawals, former employees unpaid salaries, and the reserves visible on-chain have fallen sharply. The 26 August 01:00 UTC trading halt stands for now. Anyone still holding a balance should act as if the restructuring guarantees nothing — because it doesn’t.
Trading stops
26 Aug 2026, 01:00 UTC
Platform closed
31 Jan 2027, 15:59 UTC
Earlier damage
Hot-wallet hack of $196m in 2021, losses reimbursed at the time
BMX token
More than 80% lower in one week
Risk level
High — withdrawal problems, infighting and a restructuring promise without guarantees
What this means. On paper an orderly wind-down with generous deadlines. In practice the slow withdrawal processing is the signal that counts, not the calendar. Waiting until August means joining the crowd; the sensible route is to withdraw now and keep the confirmation. Complete your verification now, submit your withdrawal and keep every confirmation. Don’t wait for the restructuring.
Left the EU under MiCAR
These platforms still exist, but no longer for you. The MiCAR transition period ended on 1 July 2026: without a CASP licence a provider may no longer supply crypto services to customers in the EU. Of the more than 1,200 previously registered firms, roughly one in five obtained that licence.
Platforms that have ceased or restricted EU services. Always verify the current status in the ESMA CASP register.
Platform
What happened
Date
Your balance
Binanceglobal
Withdrew its CASP application with the Greek HCMC because no decision was forthcoming; stopped new orders and deposits for EU-verified users. Says it is seeking the licence in another member state.
Application withdrawn 24 Jun 2026 Services stopped 1 Jul 2026
Remains withdrawable; no closing date communicated
MEXCglobal
Not in the ESMA register and holds no MiCAR authorisation in any EU member state. That has now changed: MEXC has announced its exit — open positions must be closed by 3 September, and on 13 September 2026 MEXC stops entirely for the EEA. The Dutch AFM warned in September 2025 that MEXC offers crypto services in the Netherlands without a licence; Belgium’s FSMA (2024) and Germany’s BaFin (2023) acted earlier. According to observers including FinTelegram, MEXC remained reachable for EU users after 1 July and accepted new registrations.
Active without authorisation
Trading continues, but without EU supervision or MiCAR protection
HTXformerly Huobi
No MiCAR authorisation and no announced licensing process.
From 1 Jul 2026
Withdraw; no EU supervision to fall back on
GeminiUK, EEA and Australia
Left the UK, the EEA and Australia while holding a MiCAR licence from Malta and a MiFID II licence. A commercial choice, not a licensing problem.
Announced 5 Feb 2026, accounts closed 6 Apr 2026
Had to be out before 6 April; customers were directed to eToro
CoinExglobal
Ended its services in the EEA when the MiCAR transition period ran out. Its own statement: withdrawals are not restricted and can be made at any time.
Announced 22 Jun, stopped 1 Jul 2026
Withdrawable; no restriction announced
Bybitglobal platform
France was dropped back in 2024. EEA customers had to move to Bybit EU themselves, which has held a MiCAR licence from Austria's FMA since May 2025; those who did not move were left with only a withdrawal window.
France Aug 2024, EEA 1 Jul 2026
Withdrawable, but only after moving across yourself or via the withdrawal window
VancelianAutomata France · France
The AMF withdrew the PSAN registration over crowdfunding without a licence and directors who failed the fit-and-proper test. One of the few genuine withdrawals.
Decision 7 May, effective 30 Jun 2026
Only steps needed to give customers access to their holdings
Even without an announcement, a platform can fall outside the register. The only reliable check is to look up the legal entity in the ESMA CASP register — a brand name says nothing about the entity that holds your money.
Acquired — the platform stays, the owner does not
The contrast between the two years is sharp. 2025 was the year of the acquisitions: those who could not keep up were bought. 2026 is the year of the closures: those who were not bought are stopping. An acquisition is not a closure, but it is a reason to look again — terms, fee structure and the entity you are a customer of can change after integration, and the licence does not automatically move with it.
Major acquisitions in the exchange market, 2025–2026.
Acquired
By
Amount
When
Why it matters
Deribitoptions and futures
Coinbase
$2.9bn
Announced May 2025
Largest deal in the sector so far; brings the dominant options market under a US listed company
BitstampLuxembourg, since 2011
Robinhood
$200m
Completed H1 2025
One of the oldest European exchanges, with licences in dozens of jurisdictions, now part of a US broker
NinjaTraderfutures, US
Kraken
$1.5bn
March 2025
Gives Kraken a CFTC licence and a bridge to traditional futures
Hidden Roadprime broker
Ripple
$1.25bn
April 2025
Clearing and credit for institutional parties pass into the hands of a payments company
WonderFiCanada
Robinhood
around $179m
2025
Shows the same pattern as Bitstamp: licensed regional exchanges are absorbed rather than competed with
Breakoutprop trading
Kraken
not disclosed
September 2025
Part of the same buying spree with which Kraken moved from pure exchange to multi-asset platform
BLOXNijmegen · around 850,000 users
Coinmerce
51% majority stake
October 2024
The largest consolidation in the Dutch market; see the section below
bitbankJapan
SBI Holdings
¥46.7bn (around $289m)
June 2026
Makes SBI Japan's largest by assets held in custody; the platform keeps running for now
The Dutch market: consolidation since 2023
The Netherlands ran ahead of the rest of the EU. The transitional regime for crypto firms registered with DNB ended here as early as 30 June 2025, and supervisory costs had risen sharply years before that. The result is a market that has gone from dozens of providers to a handful.
Dutch providers that have stopped, been acquired or relocated.
Provider
What happened
When
Where customers went
LiteBitRotterdam, since 2013
Stopped entirely. The company cited rising compliance costs, competition and the absence of a level playing field.
May 2023
After approval from the ACM, Dutch customers could switch to Bitvavo; Austrian and French customers to Bitpanda
Anycoin DirectVeghel
Relocated to Germany and applied for the licence there, in order to keep serving the Dutch market from another member state.
2024
Remains active under a German licence
BLOXNijmegen, since 2018
Not stopped, but acquired. Coinmerce took a majority stake of 51% after an employee had embezzled crypto; the acquisition talks accelerated as a result. The employee was suspended and a criminal complaint was filed.
October 2024
Continues to exist as a brand under Coinmerce; holds a MiCAR licence from the AFM
BUX CryptoAmsterdam
Customer base transferred to Coinmerce, which had earlier also taken over Binance customers.
2023–2024
Coinmerce
SATOSUtrecht
Customers migrated to Bybit EU.
2025–2026
Bybit EU
KnakenRotterdam · around 30,000 customers
Stopped at the end of May 2026 without a MiCAR licence, after which customers could no longer reach their money. The Dutch public prosecution service (OM) filed for bankruptcy on public interest grounds and the Rotterdam district court granted it. Around €7m of customer money is missing; the foundation that should have kept it segregated paid out nothing.
Stopped end of May, bankrupt 16 July 2026
Nowhere — an insolvency trustee is handling the claims
BL3PBitonic · Amsterdam
Closed the exchange because of MiCAR and moved remaining balances automatically to the customer's Bitonic account. No action was needed.
20 December 2024
Bitonic, the same owner
Bitcoin MeesterCoin Meester B.V.
Kraken completed the acquisition in September 2024 and closed the BCM accounts on 7 January 2025. Coins Kraken does not support were sold at the average market price and credited as balance; customers outside the Netherlands and Belgium had everything converted into euros.
7 January 2025
Kraken; identity re-verification could be requested
CoinMartretail arm
Gave customers a withdrawal window from 6 March to 6 April 2025. Anything still held after that was sold at market price between 7 and 11 April and transferred in euros to the bank account on file. CoinMart continued for business customers.
March–April 2025
Paid out in euros to your own bank account
The pattern in the Netherlands differs from the closures elsewhere: almost no customer money was lost. At LiteBit the switch was guided and guaranteed. That is exactly the difference between a regulated wind-down and a platform that shuts its doors on a Sunday morning.
What these cases have in common
Closures, exits and acquisitions come out of the same movement. These are the signals that were visible beforehand — and that you can check at your own exchange.
The middle segment is falling away
Exchanges without a niche of their own depend on a constant supply of new users. When volumes fall the floor disappears from under that model, while licensing costs rise.
A licence is a cost item, not a seal of approval
MiCAR makes the EU accessible to those who obtain the licence and unreachable for those who do not. For smaller firms that is a choice between investing, selling or leaving — and all three are visible this year.
Withdrawal problems come before the announcement
At AscendEX users were reporting restrictions as early as May, two months before the official stop. Delayed withdrawals are the earliest publicly visible signal.
Reserves can be checked
In several cases public wallet analyses pointed to empty or sharply shrunken reserves before anything was announced. Proof of Reserves is no guarantee, but its absence is a signal.
Collapsed, seized and bankrupt
An orderly wind-down is the favourable variant: there are deadlines and you can withdraw. These platforms disappeared differently — through fraud, insolvency or a raid. The distinction is not academic: it determines whether you get your money back or hold a claim in a bankruptcy.
Platforms that have collapsed, been seized or declared bankrupt.
Platform
What happened
When
Outcome for customers
eXchswap service
German authorities seized the server infrastructure and shut the service down. The Bundeskriminalamt reported having secured more than eight terabytes of data.
April 2025
Service gone with immediate effect; no wind-down period
Bittrex Globalinternational
Ceased after years of rising costs and increasing regulatory pressure on a globally operating exchange.
2023–2024
Orderly wind-down with withdrawal deadlines
OPNXclaims on bankrupt companies
Announced discontinuation of its activities; users were given deadlines to close positions and withdraw.
February 2024
Commercial wind-down
ZipmexThailand
The Thai regulator had earlier ordered the company to resolve problems with its financial position and its operations, and then suspended its services.
2024
Access to balances restricted for a long period
FTXBahamas
Collapsed after the entanglement with trading firm Alameda Research came to light; founder convicted.
November 2022
Bankruptcy; payout via the trustee, years later
Celsiuslending
Withdrawals frozen and bankruptcy filed shortly afterwards.
2022
Bankruptcy; partial payout
QuadrigaCXCanada
Access to the reserves disappeared with the death of the founder; more structural problems emerged later.
2019
Most of the balances never recovered
Mt. GoxJapan
Loss of hundreds of thousands of bitcoin; settlement running for years.
2014
Payouts only from 2024
GarantexRussia
Domains and infrastructure seized by the US Secret Service, together with US prosecutors, Europol and the German, Finnish, Dutch and Estonian police; two administrators charged. More than $26m frozen, and Tether froze a further $27m in USDT. Successor Grinex was sanctioned in August 2025.
6 March 2025
There is a contact point for claims, but no published scheme for returning funds
BitForexHong Kong
Around $56.5m disappeared from the hot wallets, after which withdrawals stopped and support vanished. Hong Kong's SFC put the platform on its warning list. A withdrawal channel reopened in July 2024, but how much was actually paid out has been reported only by BitForex itself.
23 February 2024
Partly and slowly; many users still report seeing nothing back
WazirXIndia · Singapore
A $234m hack. The Singapore court rejected the first restructuring plan and approved a revised plan only on 13 October 2025.
July 2024 – October 2025
Around 85% of recognised claims plus recovery tokens; withdrawals were frozen for sixteen months
DMM BitcoinJapan
Lost 4,503 bitcoin, around $305m, in a hack and decided to shut down. The parent company covered the shortfall and moved all accounts and holdings to SBI VC Trade.
Hack May 2024, transfer 8 March 2025
Repaid in full — the counterexample on this list
CommEXBinance's successor in Russia
Announced a phased closure in March 2024; the site went dark on 10 May.
March–May 2024
Anyone who left a balance behind paid a 1% management fee
Operatie Final Exchange47 exchange services without identity checks
Germany's BKA and the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office took 47 services offline in a single operation and seized servers, transaction data and registration data.
19 September 2024
Nothing has been disclosed about customer balances
Cryptex en PM2BTCwith a Dutch seizure
OFAC sanctioned Cryptex and FinCEN designated PM2BTC as a money laundering concern. The Dutch fiscal investigation service (FIOD) and the Dutch police seized domains and servers and impounded around €7m in crypto.
26 September 2024
No scheme for returning funds published
Bit.comoptions and futures
Announced a phased closure at the end of December 2025. Spot trading stopped at the end of January 2026 and the final withdrawal and migration date was 31 March 2026.
December 2025 – March 2026
Withdraw or migrate to Matrixport; nothing has been published about what was left after that
Since 23 July 2026, fourteen trading platforms have been on the EU sanctions list, among them HTX, EXMO, Rapira, BitPapa and Exnode. From 23 August 2026, parties in the EU may no longer transact with them. Anyone who still has money there can apply for permission to withdraw; according to reports this must be done within three months of that date, so roughly before 23 November 2026.
The full stories behind these cases are in our reports: Mt. Gox, FTX, QuadrigaCX and Celsius. The recurring element is always the same: the problem was visible in the withdrawals before it became visible in the announcements.
Frequently asked questions
Will I get my money back if my exchange closes?
That depends on the type of closure. In an orderly wind-down with announced deadlines, withdrawals generally stay open until the end date. In a stop without a deadline and without a commitment on amount or timing there is no certainty, and the treatment of balances may fall under any insolvency procedure. In both cases, submit a withdrawal request as early as possible.
What happens to my account if my exchange is acquired?
Your account continues to exist, but the entity you are a customer of may change. Watch three things: which licence you fall under after the integration, whether the fee structure changes, and whether you have to agree to terms again. In a cross-border acquisition your regulator may change as well.
What does reduce-only mean?
You can only reduce or close existing positions, not open new positions and not increase existing ones. It is the last phase before trading stops altogether. Positions still open on the end date are settled at the platform's mark or index price.
Does MiCAR protect me against closures like these?
Not against the closure itself. MiCAR sets requirements on licensing, capital, custody of client funds and disclosure, and obliges non-licensed providers to wind down in an orderly manner. It is not a guarantee fund: a licensed provider can still stop. What it does mean is that the segregation of client funds at a licensed party is demonstrably arranged, and at a non-licensed party it is not.
How do I see whether my exchange is licensed in the EU?
Check the entity in the ESMA CASP register and with the national regulator — look at the exact legal entity and the services the licence covers, not at the brand name. For perpetuals and equities a MiFID II licence is also required. Our overview of exchanges with MiCAR and the list of MiFID II licences are maintained on the basis of those registers.
Is this page updated?
Yes. With every new announcement a line is added and the deadlines on the wind-down board shift. The date at the top indicates the most recent change.
Reference date. 23 August 2026. All times in UTC unless stated otherwise.
