Cryptocurrency exchange BitMart has told users it is evaluating a "potential restructuring and business resumption plan," weeks after announcing it would wind down operations. The company said on July 26 that it would begin shutting down, and many of its 12 million registered users have been waiting since then on frozen funds. Because centralized exchanges hold custody of customer assets rather than simply matching peer-to-peer trades, withdrawal access during a wind-down depends on the operator's own finances — the dynamic behind much of the scrutiny that has followed each update.

Will BitMart reverse its shutdown?

BitMart posted a note titled "Update Regarding BitMart's Potential Restructuring and Business Resumption Plan" on its X account. The note references the exchange's July 26 announcement that it would wind down its trading platform and thanks the community for its patience during the period.

As Cryptopolitan reported, the shutdown was attributed to operating conditions, the wider market, and the exchange's strategic direction. New account creation was halted on the same day the shutdown was announced, deposits were switched off, and fresh orders were disabled. BMX, the exchange's own ERC-20 token, fell close to 60% within a day of the news.

Even if the exchange reverses its decision, the remainder of its announced timeline stands. Spot and futures trading are set to end on August 26, 2026, and the platform is scheduled to close entirely on January 31, 2027. Withdrawals are meant to remain open through that final date, though Cryptopolitan has reported that users are facing delays and extra compliance and security checks.

Is BitMart solvent?

The talk of restarting the exchange comes while it remains unclear whether BitMart has enough money to pay everyone back. On August 8, founder Sheldon Xia posted in Chinese that the exchange "has not run away" and "will not run away." He also told users not to trust screenshots or leaks from people claiming to be current or former staff, but he provided no numbers, dates, or proof-of-reserves report. That same day was the deadline for U.S. customers to withdraw their crypto.

Notably, doubts about BitMart emerged before the shutdown was even announced. On August 10, Whale Alert reported that a co-founder of OpenGradient said his market-making team could not take their money out of BitMart, and he openly asked whether the exchange had enough funds to cover all user deposits.

BitMart has said withdrawals are still being processed, but it has still not released the proof of reserves it promised on May 23. At the time, it blamed earlier withdrawal problems on 239 accounts it said were abusing trading subsidies and said it would publish reserve figures "at an appropriate time." Proof-of-reserves attestations became a common trust signal across the industry after FTX's collapse in November 2022 exposed how little visibility customers typically have into an exchange's holdings, and several of the largest exchanges began publishing them in the aftermath. History also shows how long recoveries can run: creditors of Mt. Gox only began receiving repayments in 2024, a decade after that exchange's 2014 collapse.

BitMart also has a history of security issues, including an incident in December 2021, when hackers stole about $150 million from one of its hot wallets — one of the larger exchange breaches of that year.

Why did staff hijack BitMart's X account?

On August 17, people claiming to be employees took control of BitMart's Chinese X account and addressed Xia and partner Yi Li directly. The group laid out five demands with an August 19 deadline: account for where user money went, explain why withdrawals remain blocked, open all related accounts, trusts, and affiliated entities to investigation, pay staff their outstanding wages, and deliver a workable repayment plan.

Xia rejected the posts as fabricated, stating that the Chinese account had been compromised and was not run by current employees. He claimed he had gathered evidence, planned a police report, and would send a lawyer's letter to X seeking technical and data checks. He added that customer assets take priority and that employees get no special standing. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT, widely cited for tracing stolen funds on-chain, pushed back, arguing that anyone holding real liquidity should simply return the money rather than post vague statements.

BitMart's own numbers also raise questions. CoinMarketCap data shows the exchange has about $272.6 million in daily trading volume, but BitMart reports having only about $5.36 million in reserves. Most of that is in its own token, BMX ($3.88 million), plus roughly $677,000 in Ethereum (ETH).

By contrast, on August 14 rival exchange MEXC published a report from security firm Hacken showing that it has more than enough money to cover all user deposits, at 288% of the Bitcoin it needs. For BitMart users, the next concrete markers are already fixed: whether the promised proof-of-reserves figures finally appear, whether the August 26 trading halt proceeds as scheduled, and whether withdrawals keep moving — however slowly — through the January 31, 2027 closure.