CoinEx is shutting down after nine years, citing market slump and rising compliance costs

CoinEx, the global cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2017 as part of the ViaBTC Group, announced today that it will cease operations and begin an orderly wind-down. The company cited a prolonged downturn in digital-asset markets, shrinking industry trading volume and liquidity, and compliance costs that have “exceeded reasonable boundaries”.

The company said the process starts September 15, 2026. Withdrawals will remain open until December 22, 2026 (UTC+8), after which the exchange will shut down. CoinEx said it maintains an asset reserve ratio above 100 per cent and that all user balances are fully backed and available for withdrawal. The company publishes proof of reserves on its website.

The announcement, posted on the official CoinEx Global X account and published on the exchange’s site, was labelled as the platform’s final official communication. The company said any later messages issued in CoinEx’s name should be treated as fraudulent. Users with questions were directed to the existing support ticket system.

Important dates as CoinEx winds down

The wind-down follows a tightly defined calendar. On September 15, new registrations stop, referral commissions and other rewards end, futures markets enter reduce-only mode, and the platform stops accepting new subscriptions or orders for fiat services, margin trading, loans, Earn products, staking and strategic trading.

On September 22, all non-spot services close. On-chain deposits will halt except for CET, which can still be deposited until September 29. Futures positions that remain open will be forcibly settled at the index price. Loans that are unpaid will be processed under existing liquidation rules, with leftover collateral credited to users. Earn and staking products will be redeemed in bulk, with yields calculated according to product rules.

Spot trading continues until September 29. That day, unfilled spot orders will be cancelled. Remaining non-USDT assets will be processed: liquid tokens will be sold in external markets and converted to USDT; illiquid tokens will be delisted, and users who still hold them after the cutoff will need to withdraw them on-chain. CoinEx Smart Chain and the OneSwap decentralised exchange will also stop operating.

From September 15 through September 29, the platform will repurchase the remaining CET at a fixed price of 0.005 USDT per token, with no quantity cap and no extra conditions. After that window, the platform will automatically buy back leftover CET in user accounts at the same price. The figure matches CET’s initial listing price.

Withdrawals, custody and independent products

Withdrawal channels stay open through the entire wind-down and are not tied to the closure of trading products. CoinEx urged users to move funds early, warning that blockchain congestion, changing fees or slower confirmations could complicate last-minute transfers.

Users must withdraw USDT by December 22. After that date, unwithdrawn USDT will be moved into independent custody. A monthly custody fee equal to 5 per cent of the original balance recorded at the end of the withdrawal period will apply. Claims can be submitted by email to support@coinex.com until August 22, 2028.

CoinEx Wallet and CoinEx Vault operate separately from the exchange and are unaffected. Both remain available for normal use.

Founder Haipo Yang, who also leads ViaBTC Group, said in a separate post that the decision followed a hard assessment. CoinEx, he wrote, never became one of the industry’s leading exchanges, while the security and compliance risks of running a centralised platform have grown harder to contain.

“Revenue can decline, but responsibility will not diminish. Taking on unlimited risk for limited revenue is no longer a rational choice.”

Yang said he had seriously considered selling the business but rejected that path. Users entrusted assets to CoinEx because they trusted the platform and, in many cases, him personally. Handing that trust to a new owner, he argued, was not the right way to end the journey. A “clean ending”, he said, was preferable. The company also promised full withdrawals and an unlimited CET buyback at the original listing price.

The closure comes after nearly nine years of operation. CoinEx launched in late 2017, backed by ViaBTC’s mining-pool infrastructure, and at one point served users in more than 200 countries. It was among the earlier exchanges to publish proof-of-reserves and maintain a stated 100 per cent reserve policy. The platform later faced regulatory pressure, including a 2023 settlement with the New York attorney general that led it to exit the U.S. market and a 2023 hot-wallet breach attributed by analysts to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

Other centralised exchanges have also exited or wound down in 2026 under similar pressure from thinner volumes and heavier compliance burdens. CoinEx’s notice is unusually specific about dates, asset conversion, token repurchase and post-deadline custody, a contrast to more abrupt or incomplete closures that have left users scrambling during shutdowns.

For current customers, the practical message is to convert or withdraw holdings well before December 22, treat any unofficial “updated policy” as a scam, and note that the wallet and vault products are not part of the exchange shutdown. CoinEx said ensuring users recover assets safely is now its highest priority. The company thanked users for nine years of support and said no further official announcements would be issued.