BitMart plans to officially stop operating its trading platform on January 31, 2027.

Written by: Mahe, Foresight News

Another exchange has fallen, and even Binance founder Zhao Changpeng has commented that difficult times are here again.

In the early hours of July 26, 2026, BitMart officially released an announcement stating that after assessing the company’s operational status, market environment, and future strategic direction, it has decided to begin an orderly cessation of operations for its trading platform. Following the withdrawal announcement, the platform’s token BMX plummeted from around $0.3 to $0.064, with its market value dramatically shrinking to $20.57 million.

At the time of the announcement, BitMart still maintained a 24-hour trading volume of around several hundred million dollars. For a medium-sized exchange, this figure is not small. However, under the pressure of various factors, it ultimately chose to exit the market.

Officially Stop Operations in January 2027

According to the official announcement, the cryptocurrency trading platform BitMart declared that after evaluating its operational conditions, market environment, and future strategic direction, the platform has decided to orderly stop its trading services. Starting from 01:30 (UTC) on July 26, BitMart will gradually stop new user registrations and cryptocurrency, fiat currency deposits, contract accounts will enter a position reduction mode only, spot will stop accepting new orders, and automated services such as copy trading, grid trading, and API trading will also be gradually shut down.

From 01:00 (UTC) on August 26, BitMart will stop all spot, contract, and other trading services. Any remaining open contract positions at that time may be processed according to mark price, index price, or applicable settlement rules. Wealth management, staking, lending, and Launchpad products will be terminated in phases, with specific redemption and settlement arrangements to be notified separately.

The platform plans to officially cease trading operations on January 31, 2027, at 15:59 (UTC). After the cessation of operations, users will still be able to log in to their accounts, view historical records, and submit withdrawal requests within a specified period.

Withdrawal services are currently still available, but some requests may undergo manual review due to KYC, device and account security, source of funds, withdrawal address, Travel Rule, sanctions screening, and other requirements. BitMart reminds users to download and save their account balances, deposits and withdrawals, and trading records in advance, and to be wary of scams impersonating platform staff asking for "expedited fees," "unfreezing fees," or requesting passwords, verification codes, private keys, and mnemonic phrases.

From the wording of the announcement, BitMart attempts to frame this exit as an "orderly sunset" - stopping trading a month in advance, retaining a withdrawal window of nearly six months, and repeatedly emphasizing fraud prevention. Compared to some historical cases where withdrawals were suddenly frozen and communication was chaotic, the approach does appear relatively standardized.

However, according to Arkham data, in the past 24 hours, only 58 wallets completed withdrawals totaling about $805,000, and in the past 8 hours, the platform has not processed any withdrawal requests.

Behind the Shutdown

BitMart was founded in 2017 by Sheldon Xia and officially launched in March 2018. The early team mostly came from traditional finance and technology backgrounds, and the user base once surpassed 10 million, covering more than 100 countries and regions. The platform truly entered the public's eye during the theft incident in December 2021, where around $196 million in assets was lost due to stolen private keys. BitMart subsequently publicly committed to and indeed fully compensated the affected users.

However, the market environment didn't give it much time. Leading exchanges continuously outperformed in terms of liquidity, product diversity, and brand trust, while small and medium exchanges faced not only competition for trading volume but also increasingly high compliance and operational costs.

Recently, the exchange BitMEX also proactively shut down, sparking widespread discussion in the community, with many opinions suggesting the cryptocurrency exchange industry is entering a new round of restructuring. On one hand, as compliance processes accelerate in major global markets, the survival space for offshore exchanges continues to narrow, combined with a decline in overall market trading activity, user scale, and revenue sources under pressure, the operational difficulties for non-top-tier exchanges have significantly increased. On the other hand, the traditional business model reliant on listing fees and trading commissions is facing challenges, prompting exchanges to explore new growth directions such as tokenized securities and channel services. The industry generally believes that if small and medium-sized exchanges cannot establish differentiated competitive advantages, the trend of industry consolidation and elimination may further accelerate.

Perhaps, as BitMart's official Twitter stated, the future of the cryptocurrency industry lies on-chain.

In the days before the shutdown, BitMart had been adjusting spot leverage, suspending some automated services, and pushing forward the exit process for U.S. users; these actions now appear to be preludes to the exit.

Former Global CEO Informed Temporarily

After the announcement was released, Nenter Chow stated that he was informed on July 24 that he would terminate his role as Global CEO and immediately began the resignation process. He has not yet received confirmation of a final departure date. Since that day, he has not participated in BitMart's management and decision-making, nor has he been consulted on any operational matters. Nenter Chow indicated that the orderly cessation of operations announcement released by BitMart on July 26 was not formulated with his involvement, and he was unaware of the decision until after the announcement was made public.

This statement added a layer of drama to the event. A Global CEO who took office only in 2025 and previously frequently communicated compliance and long-term vision was dismissed two days before the shutdown announcement, with no involvement in the final decision. The internal decision-making chain and power structure among management are unknown to the outside world, but the public severance itself indicates that this exit was not a smooth transition agreed upon by the team.

The official reasons given for the shutdown remain vague. The announcement merely states that "after a prudent assessment of the company's operating conditions, market environment, and future development direction," without disclosing specific financial data, the scale of losses, or any singular triggering events. Such ambiguous phrasing is not uncommon when medium-sized exchanges exit, but it also makes it difficult for the outside world to determine whether the true pressures stem from liquidity, compliance costs, or declining business competitiveness. The fact that Nenter Chow was dismissed as Global CEO two days prior to the announcement and had no participation in the final decision further reinforces the impression of a lack of transparency in the internal decision-making chain.

Currently, interest is rising around whether BitMart will be acquired.

After the shutdown announcement was released, Zhao Changpeng expressed the opinion that it is a difficult time! At least, it seems to be an orderly closing process, allowing users to withdraw their assets. He then continued to respond to the reasons for not acquiring the exchange: "Acquiring a CEX is not as easy as other businesses. What happens if a hacking attack occurs after the acquisition? Are they old backdoors left by the previous team, or new problems? Acquisition is still possible, just much more complicated."