BitMart announced over the weekend that it will be pulling down the shutters to its operations in the coming days. Following the announcement, a number of BitMart users have taken to social media claiming that they are have been unable to process withdrawals from the exchange. The Cayman Islands-registered company was launched by entrepreneur Sheldon Xia back in 2018.
The platform cited evaluations of its operating conditions and market environment as reasons behind its decision to exit the ecosystem of crypto exchanges.
As part of his exit decision, BitMart informed its users that new registrations on the platforms have been halted started July 26. Other services like deposits and new trading orders will also be wound down in the coming days. The platform did note that withdrawal services will be active.
Panic mode: On
Users of the exchange will have to re-verify their KYCs to complete withdrawal initiations. However, the process is not functioning smoothly, user complaints on X indicated.
Onchain inteligence firm LookOnChain is tracking withdrawals on BitMart. On Monday, an update by LookOnChain said, “Over the past 24 hours, only 58 wallets withdrew funds, with total withdrawals of ~$805K. Bitmart has not processed any withdrawals in the past eight hours.”
For now, it remains unclear if this is simply a temporary manual review or if users face a prolonged lockout from their funds. BitMart has also bumped withdrawal fees on its platform to $11 across low-cost networks like Solana as well as for those with higher gas fees, like Ethereum, adding to users’ concerns.
Amid lack of clarity on these developments, BitMart users seem to be in a state of confusion, which is adding more tension to the existing hysteria. Some are speculating if their funds were at risk of being stolen in a rug-pull like situation.
BitMart is yet to address these concerns. Its last post on X was that annoucing its shutdown.
By August 26, all trading services on the platform will be stopped and on January 31, the BitMart will be pulled offline.
Nenter Chow, who served as the global CEO of BitMart, said he was informed of his role being terminated with immediate effect and that he was not involved about the shutdown decision at all.
“I was not involved in the decision announced today, not consulted on it, and not informed of it. I learned of it when it became public. Since 24 July I have had no role in the management or decision-making of the company and have not been consulted on any operational matters,” Chow’s post on X revealed.
He urged all BitMart users to only rely on information being posted through official channels.
Season of shutdowns
Last week, the BitMex crypto exchange also announced the sunsetting of its operations by September 23. The platform said the decision follows a strategic review of its business position as well as the broader crypto industry. The platform offered crypto services including trading, investing, and holding for eleven years since being founded in 2014.
Decentralized cloud storage company Storj Labs and blockchain development company Movement Labs have also filed for bankruptcy in recent days.
The massive market consolidation around a few dominant centralized giants could be among reasons why comparatively smaller plaforms are resorting to backing out. Many of these smaller platforms could, afterall, be struggling with liquidity constraints, declining user volume, and heavy competition.
When BitMart announced its decision to shut down, Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) notably grabbed the opportunity to invite more crypto users onto the exchange, which is already touted as the largest player in the sector.
“Tough times,” CZ posted, suggesting Binance-owned self custody wallet — Trust Wallet, and the Binance exchange, against other exchanges.
