On August 8, BitMart founder Sheldon Xia responded for the first time since the shutdown announcement, saying he is not hiding and did not take users’ funds. Users have reported being unable to withdraw since July 26.
1.我们没有跑路，也不会跑路。
2.很多谣言和所谓的前员工、现任员工所谓的爆料，截图等等，请不要轻信谣言。
3.核心团队还在进行资产盘点，资产归集和系统维护的工作，有序清退是我们的目标，请等待公告和通知。…— Sheldon (@sheldonbitmart) August 8, 2026
He said the core team is conducting an inventory and consolidation of assets and maintaining systems, and urged users to wait for official announcements. Xia advised against trusting unverified information, including screenshots shared by former and current employees.
“We have not misappropriated any assets and have not taken steps to withdraw funds ahead of others or evade obligations. We are considering engaging courts and independent third-party auditors to provide a transparent report,” the exchange’s founder wrote.
The statement followed two weeks of silence from management. The platform announced a phased shutdown on July 26: trading will end on August 26, and the platform will cease operating on January 31, 2027. Withdrawals remain available but are delayed.
What users are reporting
The day after the announcement, Lookonchain analysts noted that over 24 hours, only 58 wallets withdrew funds from BitMart totaling approximately $805,000.
BitMart(@BitMartExchange) has announced it is shutting down, while withdrawals will remain available.
Over the past 24 hours, only 58 wallets withdrew funds, with total withdrawals of ~$805K.
And #BitMart has not processed any withdrawals in the past 8 hours. pic.twitter.com/GByU0K7WSe
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 27, 2026
A user going by King David replied to Xia’s post that out of roughly $24,000 in his account, the exchange released $5 — the remainder of a $10 test transaction submitted on August 3. An Ethereum withdrawal request of about $4,000 from August 1 has still not been processed, he said. Other users reported similar issues.
On Trustpilot, a client with monthly turnover of $10–20 million reported $280,000 blocked. Another user pointed to an unprocessed request for 131,103 USDT submitted on July 22. Some also reported problems receiving verification codes when logging in.
Hungarian company Gen6 contacted the country’s police over funds blocked on the exchange. According to the firm, about $80,000 has not been released by BitMart since July 26 without explanation.
We’ve filed a criminal complaint (feljelentés) with the Hungarian police — @police_HU — over funds locked on BitMart.
Gen6 has ~80,000 USD frozen on @BitMartExchange: withdrawals refused without explanation since Jul 26. We’re far from alone; thousands of users are locked out of… pic.twitter.com/p9cfc0NSqc
— Gen6 (@LifeInGen6) August 8, 2026
On August 8, an analyst known as Maartunn recorded a spike in activity. Over 24 hours, the exchange processed about 7,200 Ethereum transactions — roughly 300 per hour.
BitMart is processing a large amount of ETH withdrawal transactions in recent hours.
About ~300 per hour, for the last 24 hours https://t.co/0brmnmbcNc pic.twitter.com/BMgAxlOGCA
— Maartunn (@JA_Maartun) August 8, 2026
In July, it emerged that BitMEX would close. The exchange will fully cease operations on September 23. Earlier this year, it was fined $100 million for violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act.
