CoinEx, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange, recently announced it will commence orderly liquidation and cease operations. Incubated by mining pool ViaBTC in late 2017, the platform's founder and CEO, Yang Haipo, acknowledged that the exchange failed to secure a top-tier position in the industry. Furthermore, escalating security risks and regulatory challenges have rendered its operations unsustainable. The primary catalyst for this exit is the prolonged crypto market downturn, which has caused a dual contraction in liquidity and trading volume. This, coupled with continuously rising global regulatory thresholds, has pushed compliance costs far beyond the company's financial limits.
To manage asset disposal and user exits, CoinEx has introduced a phased liquidation plan. The platform has immediately frozen new user registrations and associated referral rewards, while restricting contract trading to close-only mode. Under the schedule, non-spot services will be fully suspended on September 22, with spot trading concluding on September 29. During this interim, the platform will repurchase all CET tokens in user accounts at $0.005 per token, with no limits and zero fees. Despite CET's overall weak performance this year, the delisting news sparked a short-term price rebound. Following the closure of the withdrawal window on December 22, CoinEx will officially cease operations. Unwithdrawn Tether (USDT) balances will be transferred to an independent custodial account, subject to a 5% monthly custody fee, with the claims channel remaining open until late August 2028. At the time of the announcement, the exchange reported a daily trading volume of approximately $58 million and emphasized that its reserve ratio remains above 100%.
CoinEx's departure was not entirely unforeseen, given its history of facing stringent regulatory scrutiny. In 2023, the platform reached a settlement with the New York Attorney General over compliance violations, paying over $1.7 million in fines and restitution, and subsequently exiting the New York market entirely.
CoinEx's exit is far from an isolated incident; rather, it highlights the profound shakeout currently reshaping the entire crypto industry. Since the beginning of 2026, multiple prominent trading platforms have announced their closures in succession. Be it BitMEX, a pioneer in perpetual contracts, planning to end its 11-year run this autumn; BitMart, which claims tens of millions of users, slated to shut down completely in early next year; or AscendEX, suspended due to new European regulations and a lack of necessary licenses, all these cases underscore the severe growing pains the industry is enduring. Data indicates that since early 2026 alone, nearly 100 projects spanning trading platforms, decentralized finance, NFTs, and underlying blockchain infrastructure have been forced to halt operations under the dual squeeze of declining trading volumes and skyrocketing compliance costs. Confronting this irreversible phase-out process, CoinEx has stated it will issue no further announcements, repeatedly urging users to complete the withdrawal and conversion of their assets well before the deadlines.
