Orionx, a Chilean cryptocurrency exchange backed by USDt stablecoin issuer Tether, is shutting down after uncovering a multimillion-dollar problem tied to asset custody.

The exchange said it has begun a permanent closure process after a forensic audit found that more than $7 million in custodial assets had been moved to wallets it did not manage, according to a company announcement shared on X on Thursday (post).

“Our sole priority now is to return as much of our clients’ assets as possible,” Orionx said, adding that withdrawals have been temporarily suspended. The outcome of that recovery process is likely to be watched closely in Chile and across Latin America, where retail investors in similar exchange collapses have historically faced lengthy waits to recover funds — most notably in the case of Chilean exchange Buda’s 2018 banking access disputes, and regionally in the wake of failures such as FTX in 2022, which intensified global pressure on exchanges to prove they hold the assets they claim.

The closure comes just 15 months after Tether led Orionx’s Series A funding round as part of its push to expand digital asset adoption in Latin America, a region where the stablecoin issuer has made several strategic investments aimed at extending USDt’s reach in emerging markets.

Timing of the $7 million transfers remains unclear

Orionx’s announcement did not specify when the transfers of more than $7 million occurred or how the discrepancy was first discovered.

As part of its efforts to comply with Chile’s Fintech Law, Orionx conducted a review of its operations in 2025 and brought in financial professionals, according to the major Chilean newspaper La Tercera, citing the company’s criminal complaint. The Fintech Law, which took effect in 2023, brought crypto service providers under regulatory supervision in Chile for the first time, obliging platforms to register and meet custody and reporting standards.

According to the complaint, on Aug. 27 chief operating officer Thomas Mac Millan detected a “significant mismatch” between the balances recorded in Orionx’s systems and the assets actually held in custody.

An internal review followed, and Orionx later commissioned an external forensic audit that compared its records with data verifiable onchain. The audit found that balances recorded in Orionx’s systems exceeded the assets held at its custody addresses for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP and Polygon (POL). The gap went reportedly undetected for years — an outcome that highlights the limits of internal record-keeping alone, since only an onchain comparison of recorded balances against actual custody addresses exposed the shortfall.

The criminal complaint reportedly alleges that assets were transferred out of Orionx’s custody between 2018 and 2021, including to accounts on other crypto platforms.

Orionx accuses co-founders, who deny wrongdoing

Orionx said it filed a criminal complaint on Wednesday against former executives Roberto Zibert and Joaquín Díaz, both co-founders who allegedly had access to the company’s crypto custody systems.

The complaint alleges that an account associated with Díaz received more than $1.5 million across 14 transfers, while another wallet allegedly received 187 Ether, more than 4.1 million USDt (USDT) and 200,000 USDC from Orionx, La Tercera reported.

Zibert and Díaz denied the allegations, saying they never acted against customers’ interests and that the cause of Orionx’s asset shortfall remains unclear, as reported by La Cuarta. The allegations remain unproven and the case will now proceed through Chile’s courts.

Tether backed Orionx in 2025

Founded in Chile in 2017, Orionx grew from a retail crypto exchange into a platform offering crypto payment and financial services in Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico.

Tether invested in Orionx in June 2025, exclusively leading the exchange’s Series A funding round, according to an archived version of Tether’s announcement. The announcement is no longer available on Tether’s website.

Cointelegraph contacted Tether and Orionx for comment but had not received a response by publication.