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Story: CoinEx Closes After 9 Years, Joining BitMEX and BitMart in Industry Exodus

By Steven Anderson

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What Happens to Your Money After December 22. Here's where users need to pay close attention. Any unclaimed USDT sitting in accounts after…

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The 2023 New York Settlement and Its Long Shadow. CoinEx's regulatory history didn't help. In 2023, the exchange settled a legal case with the New…

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CoinEx is done. The Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange, founded by mining pool ViaBTC back in December 2017, announced Tuesday it's closing for good — nine years of…

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The reasons aren't surprising, but they're brutal. A prolonged crypto market downturn gutted trading volumes. Compliance costs kept climbing.

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New user registrations stopped immediately. Referral rewards, also gone. By September 22, every service except spot trading shuts off. Spot trading itself ends September 29.

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It's a pretty structured wind-down, all things considered.

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Here's where users need to pay close attention. Any unclaimed USDT sitting in accounts after December 22 doesn't just vanish — it moves to independent custody.

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CoinEx made it clear: no further official announcements are coming. The exchange told users to withdraw well before the December deadline and not wait around for reminders.

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The exchange did drop a few numbers before closing up shop. Daily trading volume sat at roughly $58 million, and CoinEx claimed its reserve ratio stayed above 100%.

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CoinEx's regulatory history didn't help. In 2023, the exchange settled a legal case with the New York Attorney General, paying over $1.7 million to resolve the allegations.

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See also: Situational Awareness Fund Faces New Losses After AI Stock Options Crash

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That settlement probably cost more than just money. The reputational hit, the legal fees, the compliance overhaul required afterward — it all adds to the operational weight that…

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And CoinEx isn't alone in this. Not even close.

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BitMEX and BitMart — both names that once carried serious weight in crypto trading circles — have also announced shutdowns in 2026, citing the same mix of market conditions and…

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Nearly 100 crypto projects, including exchanges and blockchain initiatives, have shut down in 2026 alone. That's not a blip.

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