CoinEx to End Spot Trading Sept. 29 Before December Shutdown
Withdrawals will remain available until 02:00 UTC Dec. 22, after which remaining USDT will move into independent custody.
CoinEx will cease spot trading Sept. 29 and shut down its platform in December, citing declining market activity, rising compliance costs and operational uncertainty, the exchange said in an announcement.
Withdrawal services will remain available until 02:00 UTC Dec. 22. CoinEx said it began winding down operations Sept. 15, one day after publishing its cessation announcement.
New registrations, referral payments and rewards ended Sept. 15, while futures trading entered reduce-only mode, meaning users could reduce or close existing positions but not increase them. Other non-spot services were scheduled to cease Sept. 22.
“After prudent evaluation,” CoinEx said it had decided to “cease operations and enter into an orderly cessation process.” The exchange attributed its decision to a prolonged cryptocurrency-market downturn, reduced industry trading volume and liquidity, increasing regulatory requirements and costs that it said had exceeded reasonable limits.
CoinEx will cancel unexecuted orders when spot trading ends and return the remaining liquidity to users’ spot accounts. Beginning at 02:00 UTC Sept. 29, the exchange will sell non-USDT assets that have external-market liquidity and convert the proceeds into USDT.
Assets without external-market liquidity may be delisted instead. CoinEx urged users to withdraw those assets before the deadline.
The exchange will also repurchase CET at 0.005 USDT per token from Sept. 15 through Sept. 29. Any CET remaining in user accounts on Sept. 29 will be automatically repurchased at that price, with no quantity limit. CoinEx Smart Chain and OneSwap are also scheduled to cease operations that day.
CoinEx said user assets are fully backed and its asset reserve ratio exceeds 100%, though those claims have not been independently verified. USDT remaining on the platform after withdrawals close will be transferred into independent custody.
The exchange said it will deduct a monthly custody fee equal to 5% of each user’s original asset balance recorded at the end of the withdrawal period.
CoinEx founder and CEO Haipo Yang said the exchange was closing nine years after its debut. CoinDesk quoted Yang as saying CoinEx had not become one of the industry’s leading exchanges and that the security and compliance risks of operating a crypto exchange had become increasingly difficult to contain.
“A clean ending is the right ending,” Yang said, according to Unchained. He added that carrying unlimited risk for limited revenue was no longer rational.
Unchained also reported that CoinEx withdrew from the U.S. market in 2023 after a lawsuit by the New York attorney general that was later settled for more than $1.7 million.
Users may submit claims for assets transferred into independent custody until Aug. 22, 2028.
