Closed crypto exchanges 2026: BitMEX shuts 23 September

What to do now
Closures 2026
Left the EU
Acquired
Dutch market
Collapsed and seized
Questions

If your exchange is winding down, the money is usually still there — but the window to move it closes in stages, and some of those stages are measured in hours. BitMart stops trading on 26 August 2026 at 01:00 UTC and accepts withdrawal requests until 05:00 that same morning: four hours. BitMEX goes reduce-only on the same day and pays out until 23 September, after which it charges the higher of $50 or 1% a year on whatever is left. AscendEX halted trading on 1 July 2026 and now handles withdrawals manually, with no guarantee of amount or timing. EXMO returned 70.6% of balances and issued tokens for the rest. Below is every platform we track, with its next hard deadline in UTC.

Is your platform on the list?

Wind-down board

Platforms with a wind-down under way · next hard deadline · times in UTC

Status of exchanges in wind-down, updated 14 October 2026.
Exchange	Status	Next deadline	Remaining	Withdrawals
AscendEXformerly BitMax · since 2018	Ceased	None — trading has been halted since 1 July 2026	n/a	Manual, no guarantee of amount or timing
BitMartsince 2017	Trading ceased Restructuring: adviser A&M appointed, plan promised	Trading ceased on 26 Aug 2026; withdrawal window closed 05:00 UTC	n/a	Window closed; support-only from here, with no guarantees
MEXCleaving the EEA	Exit announced No MiCA licence; AFM warning since 2025	Netherlands: move funds by 31 Oct; final offboarding 16 Nov 2026	33days	Withdraw or move funds before 31 Oct; accounts and balances do not transfer to Bybit EU automatically
BitMEXHDR Global Trading · since 2014	Closed	Trading ceased 23 Sep 2026 04:00 UTC; API withdrawals ceased 28 Sep 04:00 UTC	n/a	Withdrawals still run through the interface; on whatever is left BitMEX charges monthly the higher of $50 or 1% a year
Binancefor EU-verified users	Left the EU	No end date communicated	indefinite	Balances remain withdrawable
EXMOsince 2014 · sanctioned	Stopped	EU withdrawal window closes around 23 Nov 2026	116days	70.6% of your balance; for the rest you received USDRecover tokens

Is your money on one of these platforms?

The order below is deliberate. In a wind-down the bottleneck is almost never trading — it is the withdrawal, and that jams on verification precisely when everyone wants one at the same time.

Complete your verification now, not at the point of withdrawal

Every exchange in wind-down tightens the checks on outgoing transactions: identity, device and IP checks, source of funds, sanctions screening. An incomplete profile is the most common reason a withdrawal stalls.
Close positions before reduce-only takes effect

Under reduce-only you can only reduce, not adjust. Open futures still in place on the end date are settled at the platform's mark or index price — at that point you decide nothing.
Withdraw everything, including dust

Small residual amounts cost more effort later than they are worth: after the closing date access often runs through a support form instead of the app.
Choose your next venue on licence, not on fee

For spot, a provider in the EU needs a MiCAR CASP licence; for perpetuals and equities it also needs a MiFID II licence. That is the first filter. Costs are the second.

The closures of 2026

Three exchanges stopped within four weeks. Per platform: the timeline, the facts that are established, and what it means for anyone who still has money there.

BitMEX Closed

Announced 23 July 2026 · reason: strategic review by owner HDR Global Trading

23 Jul 2026Closure announced; new registrations closed with immediate effect
nowNormal trading; close positions and withdraw
26 Aug 04:00Reduce-only — positions can only be reduced
23 Sep 04:00Platform closes for good

BitMEX is the heaviest loss for the derivatives market: the platform introduced the perpetual swap in 2016 and was for years the reference for the BTC perp. Owner HDR Global Trading Limited is pulling the plug after a strategic review.

The underlying reason is market share: BitMEX lost its perpetuals turnover to competitors and to the new generation of decentralised derivatives markets. In addition, a class action is under way from two investors who claim their positions were liquidated without justification — see our report Did BitMEX trade against customers?

For European traders the direct impact is limited — BitMEX did not serve the EU as a licensed party — but the effect on the market is not. The perp liquidity that sat here is moving to the remaining venues, and that is exactly where spreads and funding can move in the short term.

Reduce-only: 26 Aug 2026, 04:00 UTC
Closure: 23 Sep 2026, 04:00 UTC
Active since: 2014 — 11 years
Legacy: Originator of the perpetual swap

What this means. Anyone still holding perps here has until 26 August to choose when and at what price to close. After that the platform determines the settlement. Pick a next venue on licence: in the EU perpetuals fall under MiFID II, and few providers hold that.

AscendEX Ceased

Ceased 1 July 2026 · reason: no MiCAR licence + failed liquidity transaction

1 Jul 2026Trading, deposits, staking and lending stopped
6 Jul 2026Official notice published
6 Jul 2026Automatic withdrawals off; everything reviewed manually
unknownPayout of remaining balances — no commitment on timing or amount

AscendEX is the only one of the three to name the MiCAR deadline explicitly as the cause. On 1 July 2026 the platform had no CASP licence and it ceased its services that same day. In the notice of 6 July the exchange also cited a strategic transaction that should have produced liquidity but where the counterparty did not deliver.

The difficulty lies in the wording on withdrawals: the exchange states that requests may be delayed, may require additional documentation, or may not be processed. It also leaves open the possibility of a formal insolvency procedure, under which the treatment of outstanding balances would fall. On-chain researchers observed in the run-up that the known hot wallets were almost empty of ETH, USDT, USDC and SOL.

Founded: 2018, as BitMax
Earlier damage: $78m hack in December 2021
Withdrawals: Manual, no guarantee
MiCAR status: No CASP licence

What this means. This is the most severe category: no orderly wind-down with deadlines, but a stop without any commitment that you will get your balance back. Anyone who still has money here submits a withdrawal request and records the correspondence — should an insolvency procedure follow, documentation is the only thing that counts.

BitMart Wind-down under way High risk

Announced 26 July 2026 · reason: business circumstances, market climate and strategic direction

26 Jul 01:30Registrations and deposits closed; futures to reduce-only; spot accepts no new orders
nowReduce positions and withdraw
26 Aug 01:00All trading stops — both spot and derivatives
before 9 SepPromised restructuring roadmap — uncertain
31 Jan 2027Platform closes for good (15:59)

The announcement came on a Sunday morning and gave no concrete reason: the exchange pointed to business circumstances, market climate and future strategic direction. No mention was made of insolvency, a hack or an enforcement measure.

What makes the case messy is the contrast with its own reporting nine days earlier. In the half-year report of 17 July, BitMart still reported growth in assets under management of around 256% compared with the previous quarter, a new prediction-market product and an Australian licence obtained in June. The global CEO also stated they had not been involved in the decision and had learned of it through the public announcement.

Withdrawals are formally open, but the throughput stands out. Analytics firm Lookonchain counted 58 wallets in the first 24 hours after the announcement that together withdrew around $805,000, with an eight-hour period inside that window in which not a single request was processed. The exchange's own token BMX lost more than 80% of its value in a week.

Update 18 August. The wind-down has publicly turned ugly: BitMart’s official Chinese X account carried an open letter to founder Sheldon Xia with five demands and a 19 August deadline; Xia calls the posts fabricated and the account hacked. Read the full story →

Update 23 August. BitMart says it is exploring a restructuring as an alternative to a full shutdown, with White & Case as legal adviser. It could involve a phased restart of some services and distributions to creditors; a roadmap had been promised before 9 September. Meanwhile the fight has not died down: users report blocked withdrawals, former employees unpaid salaries, and the reserves visible on-chain have fallen sharply. The 26 August 01:00 UTC trading halt stands for now. Anyone still holding a balance should act as if the restructuring guarantees nothing — because it doesn’t.

Update 9 September. The promised roadmap did not arrive. Instead BitMart appointed Alvarez & Marsal as financial adviser to review its finances, stakeholder claims and a resumption of withdrawals; figures on withdrawals and assets will only be published once an independent adviser has signed off. A feedback portal was promised within five working days and a plan within three weeks. Meanwhile a group of affected users formed an ad hoc committee on 2 September (Echo Base, with Young Conaway and Ashbury Legal); a $10m rescue offer of 6 August went unanswered according to Echo Base. In practice withdrawals remain blocked.

Trading stops: 26 Aug 2026, 01:00 UTC
Platform closed: 31 Jan 2027, 15:59 UTC
Earlier damage: Hot-wallet hack of $196m in 2021, losses reimbursed at the time
BMX token: More than 80% lower in one week
Risk level: High — withdrawal problems, infighting and a restructuring promise without guarantees

What this means. On paper an orderly wind-down with generous deadlines. In practice the slow withdrawal processing is the signal that counts, not the calendar. Waiting until August means joining the crowd; the sensible route is to withdraw now and keep the confirmation. Complete your verification now, submit your withdrawal and keep every confirmation. Don’t wait for the restructuring.

Left the EU under MiCAR

These platforms still exist, but no longer for you. The MiCAR transition period ended on 1 July 2026: without a CASP licence a provider may no longer supply crypto services to customers in the EU. Of the more than 1,200 previously registered firms, roughly one in five obtained that licence.

Platforms that have ceased or restricted EU services. Always verify the current status in the ESMA CASP register.
Platform	What happened	Date	Your balance
Binanceglobal	Withdrew its CASP application with the Greek HCMC because no decision was forthcoming; stopped new orders and deposits for EU-verified users. Says it is seeking the licence in another member state.	Application withdrawn 24 Jun 2026 Services stopped 1 Jul 2026	Remains withdrawable; no closing date communicated
MEXCglobal	Not in the ESMA register and holds no MiCAR authorisation in any EU member state. MEXC communicated two timelines in August: by email to EEA customers, 3 September (close positions) and 13 September 2026 (stop), and on 24 August, through a press release with Bybit EU, 31 October (move funds) and 16 November 2026 (offboarding) for Dutch customers. For the Netherlands the later date applies; there is no announcement of its own on mexc.com. The Dutch AFM warned in September 2025 that MEXC offers crypto services in the Netherlands without a licence; Belgium’s FSMA (2024) and Germany’s BaFin (2023) acted earlier. According to observers including FinTelegram, MEXC remained reachable for EU users after 1 July and accepted new registrations.	Active without authorisation	Trading continues, but without EU supervision or MiCAR protection
HTXformerly Huobi	No MiCAR authorisation and no announced licensing process.	From 1 Jul 2026	Withdraw; no EU supervision to fall back on
GeminiUK, EEA and Australia	Left the UK, the EEA and Australia while holding a MiCAR licence from Malta and a MiFID II licence. A commercial choice, not a licensing problem.	Announced 5 Feb 2026, accounts closed 6 Apr 2026	Had to be out before 6 April; customers were directed to eToro
CoinExglobal	Ended its services in the EEA when the MiCAR transition period ran out. Its own statement: withdrawals are not restricted and can be made at any time.	Announced 22 Jun, stopped 1 Jul 2026	Withdrawable; no restriction announced
Bybitglobal platform	France was dropped back in 2024. EEA customers had to move to Bybit EU themselves, which has held a MiCAR licence from Austria's FMA since May 2025; those who did not move were left with only a withdrawal window.	France Aug 2024, EEA 1 Jul 2026	Withdrawable, but only after moving across yourself or via the withdrawal window
VancelianAutomata France · France	The AMF withdrew the PSAN registration over crowdfunding without a licence and directors who failed the fit-and-proper test. One of the few genuine withdrawals.	Decision 7 May, effective 30 Jun 2026	Only steps needed to give customers access to their holdings

Even without an announcement, a platform can fall outside the register. The only reliable check is to look up the legal entity in the ESMA CASP register — a brand name says nothing about the entity that holds your money.

Acquired — the platform stays, the owner does not

The contrast between the two years is sharp. 2025 was the year of the acquisitions: those who could not keep up were bought. 2026 is the year of the closures: those who were not bought are stopping. An acquisition is not a closure, but it is a reason to look again — terms, fee structure and the entity you are a customer of can change after integration, and the licence does not automatically move with it.

Major acquisitions in the exchange market, 2025–2026.
Acquired	By	Amount	When	Why it matters
Deribitoptions and futures	Coinbase	$2.9bn	Announced May 2025	Largest deal in the sector so far; brings the dominant options market under a US listed company
BitstampLuxembourg, since 2011	Robinhood	$200m	Completed H1 2025	One of the oldest European exchanges, with licences in dozens of jurisdictions, now part of a US broker
NinjaTraderfutures, US	Kraken	$1.5bn	March 2025	Gives Kraken a CFTC licence and a bridge to traditional futures
Hidden Roadprime broker	Ripple	$1.25bn	April 2025	Clearing and credit for institutional parties pass into the hands of a payments company
WonderFiCanada	Robinhood	around $179m	2025	Shows the same pattern as Bitstamp: licensed regional exchanges are absorbed rather than competed with
Breakoutprop trading	Kraken	not disclosed	September 2025	Part of the same buying spree with which Kraken moved from pure exchange to multi-asset platform
BLOXNijmegen · around 850,000 users	Coinmerce	51% majority stake	October 2024	The largest consolidation in the Dutch market; see the section below
bitbankJapan	SBI Holdings	¥46.7bn (around $289m)	June 2026	Makes SBI Japan's largest by assets held in custody; the platform keeps running for now

The Dutch market: consolidation since 2023

The Netherlands ran ahead of the rest of the EU. The transitional regime for crypto firms registered with DNB ended here as early as 30 June 2025, and supervisory costs had risen sharply years before that. The result is a market that has gone from dozens of providers to a handful.

Dutch providers that have stopped, been acquired or relocated.
Provider	What happened	When	Where customers went
LiteBitRotterdam, since 2013	Stopped entirely. The company cited rising compliance costs, competition and the absence of a level playing field.	May 2023	After approval from the ACM, Dutch customers could switch to Bitvavo; Austrian and French customers to Bitpanda
Anycoin DirectVeghel	Relocated to Germany and applied for the licence there, in order to keep serving the Dutch market from another member state.	2024	Remains active under a German licence
BLOXNijmegen, since 2018	Not stopped, but acquired. Coinmerce took a majority stake of 51% after an employee had embezzled crypto; the acquisition talks accelerated as a result. The employee was suspended and a criminal complaint was filed.	October 2024	Continues to exist as a brand under Coinmerce; holds a MiCAR licence from the AFM
BUX CryptoAmsterdam	Customer base transferred to Coinmerce, which had earlier also taken over Binance customers.	2023–2024	Coinmerce
SATOSUtrecht	Customers migrated to Bybit EU.	2025–2026	Bybit EU
KnakenRotterdam · around 30,000 customers	Stopped at the end of May 2026 without a MiCAR licence, after which customers could no longer reach their money. The Dutch public prosecution service (OM) filed for bankruptcy on public interest grounds and the Rotterdam district court granted it. Around €7m of customer money is missing; the foundation that should have kept it segregated paid out nothing.	Stopped end of May, bankrupt 16 July 2026	Nowhere — an insolvency trustee is handling the claims
BL3PBitonic · Amsterdam	Closed the exchange because of MiCAR and moved remaining balances automatically to the customer's Bitonic account. No action was needed.	20 December 2024	Bitonic, the same owner
Bitcoin MeesterCoin Meester B.V.	Kraken completed the acquisition in September 2024 and closed the BCM accounts on 7 January 2025. Coins Kraken does not support were sold at the average market price and credited as balance; customers outside the Netherlands and Belgium had everything converted into euros.	7 January 2025	Kraken; identity re-verification could be requested
CoinMartretail arm	Gave customers a withdrawal window from 6 March to 6 April 2025. Anything still held after that was sold at market price between 7 and 11 April and transferred in euros to the bank account on file. CoinMart continued for business customers.	March–April 2025	Paid out in euros to your own bank account

The pattern in the Netherlands differs from the closures elsewhere: almost no customer money was lost. At LiteBit the switch was guided and guaranteed. That is exactly the difference between a regulated wind-down and a platform that shuts its doors on a Sunday morning.

What these cases have in common

Closures, exits and acquisitions come out of the same movement. These are the signals that were visible beforehand — and that you can check at your own exchange.

The middle segment is falling away

Exchanges without a niche of their own depend on a constant supply of new users. When volumes fall the floor disappears from under that model, while licensing costs rise.

A licence is a cost item, not a seal of approval

MiCAR makes the EU accessible to those who obtain the licence and unreachable for those who do not. For smaller firms that is a choice between investing, selling or leaving — and all three are visible this year.

Withdrawal problems come before the announcement

At AscendEX users were reporting restrictions as early as May, two months before the official stop. Delayed withdrawals are the earliest publicly visible signal.

Reserves can be checked

In several cases public wallet analyses pointed to empty or sharply shrunken reserves before anything was announced. Proof of Reserves is no guarantee, but its absence is a signal.

Collapsed, seized and bankrupt

An orderly wind-down is the favourable variant: there are deadlines and you can withdraw. These platforms disappeared differently — through fraud, insolvency or a raid. The distinction is not academic: it determines whether you get your money back or hold a claim in a bankruptcy.

Platforms that have collapsed, been seized or declared bankrupt.
Platform	What happened	When	Outcome for customers
eXchswap service	German authorities seized the server infrastructure and shut the service down. The Bundeskriminalamt reported having secured more than eight terabytes of data.	April 2025	Service gone with immediate effect; no wind-down period
Bittrex Globalinternational	Ceased after years of rising costs and increasing regulatory pressure on a globally operating exchange.	2023–2024	Orderly wind-down with withdrawal deadlines
OPNXclaims on bankrupt companies	Announced discontinuation of its activities; users were given deadlines to close positions and withdraw.	February 2024	Commercial wind-down
ZipmexThailand	The Thai regulator had earlier ordered the company to resolve problems with its financial position and its operations, and then suspended its services.	2024	Access to balances restricted for a long period
FTXBahamas	Collapsed after the entanglement with trading firm Alameda Research came to light; founder convicted.	November 2022	Bankruptcy; payout via the trustee, years later
Celsiuslending	Withdrawals frozen and bankruptcy filed shortly afterwards.	2022	Bankruptcy; partial payout
QuadrigaCXCanada	Access to the reserves disappeared with the death of the founder; more structural problems emerged later.	2019	Most of the balances never recovered
Mt. GoxJapan	Loss of hundreds of thousands of bitcoin; settlement running for years.	2014	Payouts only from 2024
GarantexRussia	Domains and infrastructure seized by the US Secret Service, together with US prosecutors, Europol and the German, Finnish, Dutch and Estonian police; two administrators charged. More than $26m frozen, and Tether froze a further $27m in USDT. Successor Grinex was sanctioned in August 2025.	6 March 2025	There is a contact point for claims, but no published scheme for returning funds
BitForexHong Kong	Around $56.5m disappeared from the hot wallets, after which withdrawals stopped and support vanished. Hong Kong's SFC put the platform on its warning list. A withdrawal channel reopened in July 2024, but how much was actually paid out has been reported only by BitForex itself.	23 February 2024	Partly and slowly; many users still report seeing nothing back
WazirXIndia · Singapore	A $234m hack. The Singapore court rejected the first restructuring plan and approved a revised plan only on 13 October 2025.	July 2024 – October 2025	Around 85% of recognised claims plus recovery tokens; withdrawals were frozen for sixteen months
DMM BitcoinJapan	Lost 4,503 bitcoin, around $305m, in a hack and decided to shut down. The parent company covered the shortfall and moved all accounts and holdings to SBI VC Trade.	Hack May 2024, transfer 8 March 2025	Repaid in full — the counterexample on this list
CommEXBinance's successor in Russia	Announced a phased closure in March 2024; the site went dark on 10 May.	March–May 2024	Anyone who left a balance behind paid a 1% management fee
Operatie Final Exchange47 exchange services without identity checks	Germany's BKA and the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office took 47 services offline in a single operation and seized servers, transaction data and registration data.	19 September 2024	Nothing has been disclosed about customer balances
Cryptex en PM2BTCwith a Dutch seizure	OFAC sanctioned Cryptex and FinCEN designated PM2BTC as a money laundering concern. The Dutch fiscal investigation service (FIOD) and the Dutch police seized domains and servers and impounded around €7m in crypto.	26 September 2024	No scheme for returning funds published
Bit.comoptions and futures	Announced a phased closure at the end of December 2025. Spot trading stopped at the end of January 2026 and the final withdrawal and migration date was 31 March 2026.	December 2025 – March 2026	Withdraw or migrate to Matrixport; nothing has been published about what was left after that

Since 23 July 2026, fourteen trading platforms have been on the EU sanctions list, among them HTX, EXMO, Rapira, BitPapa and Exnode. From 23 August 2026, parties in the EU may no longer transact with them. Anyone who still has money there can apply for permission to withdraw; according to reports this must be done within three months of that date, so roughly before 23 November 2026.

The full stories behind these cases are in our reports: Mt. Gox, FTX, QuadrigaCX and Celsius. The recurring element is always the same: the problem was visible in the withdrawals before it became visible in the announcements.

Frequently asked questions

Will I get my money back if my exchange closes?

That depends on the type of closure. In an orderly wind-down with announced deadlines, withdrawals generally stay open until the end date. In a stop without a deadline and without a commitment on amount or timing there is no certainty, and the treatment of balances may fall under any insolvency procedure. In both cases, submit a withdrawal request as early as possible.

What happens to my account if my exchange is acquired?

Your account continues to exist, but the entity you are a customer of may change. Watch three things: which licence you fall under after the integration, whether the fee structure changes, and whether you have to agree to terms again. In a cross-border acquisition your regulator may change as well.

What does reduce-only mean?

You can only reduce or close existing positions, not open new positions and not increase existing ones. It is the last phase before trading stops altogether. Positions still open on the end date are settled at the platform's mark or index price.

Does MiCAR protect me against closures like these?

Not against the closure itself. MiCAR sets requirements on licensing, capital, custody of client funds and disclosure, and obliges non-licensed providers to wind down in an orderly manner. It is not a guarantee fund: a licensed provider can still stop. What it does mean is that the segregation of client funds at a licensed party is demonstrably arranged, and at a non-licensed party it is not.

How do I see whether my exchange is licensed in the EU?

Check the entity in the ESMA CASP register and with the national regulator — look at the exact legal entity and the services the licence covers, not at the brand name. For perpetuals and equities a MiFID II licence is also required. Our overview of exchanges with MiCAR and the list of MiFID II licences are maintained on the basis of those registers.

Is this page updated?

Yes. With every new announcement a line is added and the deadlines on the wind-down board shift. The date at the top indicates the most recent change.

Reference date. 14 October 2026. All times in UTC unless stated otherwise.

Sources. Official notices from the platforms involved; CoinDesk, Decrypt, The Block, Reuters, CNBC; Dutch reporting via BNR and bitcoin.nl; on-chain analysis from Lookonchain, Arkham and ZachXBT; ESMA MiCA register. BitMEX ↗ BitMart ↗ AscendEX ↗ Rechtbank Rotterdam ↗ Openbaar Ministerie ↗ EXMO ↗ Gemini ↗ Bitonic ↗

Disclaimer. This overview is informational and not investment advice. Always verify licence status and deadlines at the source before you trade.