BitMart to wind down trading platform as global CEO says he was not consulted

Quick Take

• BitMart began gradually suspending deposits and new orders late Saturday, will end all trading on Aug. 26 and plans to cease platform operations on Jan. 31, 2027.
• Nenter (Nathan) Chow, BitMart's global CEO, said the company told him Friday that his employment was being terminated and that he learned of the wind-down when it became public.
• BitMart's BMX token fell nearly 60% in a day following the announcement.

Crypto exchange BitMart has begun winding down its trading platform, gradually suspending new registrations, deposits and orders ahead of a full trading halt on Aug. 26.

In a notice published at 9:40 p.m. ET Saturday, the exchange said the decision followed an evaluation of its operating conditions, market environment and future strategic direction.

All spot, futures and other trading services will stop at 01:00 UTC on Aug. 26. BitMart plans to cease trading platform operations at 15:59 UTC on Jan. 31, 2027, after which users will keep login access for a period to view records and submit withdrawal requests.

Withdrawals remain available, with BitMart recommending that users close their positions by 01:00 UTC and submit withdrawal requests by 05:00 UTC on Aug. 26. Requests made after that recommended timeframe will be transferred to a separate processing procedure, while some withdrawals may face additional identity, source-of-funds, sanctions or security reviews.

BitMart also began placing futures accounts in reduce-only mode and stopping the acceptance of new spot orders. Copy trading, grid trading and API trading are being discontinued in phases, along with BitMart Earn, staking, lending and Launchpad products.

BMX, the exchange's token, traded near $0.066 on Sunday morning, down nearly 60% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.

CEO says he was not consulted

Following the announcement, global CEO Nenter (Nathan) Chow said on X that the company told him on July 24 that his employment was being terminated and that his offboarding would begin immediately.

Chow said he had played "no role in the management or decision-making of the company" since that date, was not consulted on the wind-down, and learned of it when it became public. He said he had not been given a confirmed final date for his departure and would not comment further.

Chow said his concern is for BitMart's users and employees, and told customers to rely only on the exchange's official channels and to act on the notice without delay. BitMart had not publicly addressed Chow's statement as of publication.

Chow joined BitMart from Animoca Ventures, where he was a partner, and was appointed global CEO in April 2025 when founder Sheldon Xia moved to group president.

Abrupt reversal

The wind-down marks a reversal from BitMart's public messaging earlier this month. In a first-half report, BitMart said assets under management in its asset-management business grew approximately 256% period-over-period, while Chow outlined plans to expand the exchange's prediction markets, tokenized asset offerings and 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 and planned to expand its local compliance, legal and operations capabilities. At the time, the company said it served more than 13 million users in more than 180 countries and territories. The wind-down announcement did not explain what had changed since either statement.

In a statement dated May 23, BitMart said online claims that users could not withdraw stemmed from its risk system intercepting 239 linked accounts that it accused of farming platform activity subsidies through abusive trading. It said all operations were running normally.

In that statement, BitMart said it would publish a proof-of-reserves report once security and risk-control considerations were addressed. Its website did not appear to contain a subsequent full report as of Sunday, though the exchange previously disclosed several hot-wallet addresses.

BitMart previously suffered a $150 million hot-wallet hack in December 2021. The Block later reported that the exchange's parent company won an arbitration award tied to a separate $6 million attack involving the Bitcoin SV blockchain.

The shutdown comes three days after BitMEX announced that it would close permanently on Sept. 23 following a strategic review. Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao described BitMart's announcement as "tough times (again)" in an X post and said the process appeared to be an orderly wind-down.

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