Bitmart founder Sheldon Xia has broken several days of silence to respond to mounting user anger over withdrawal delays and reports of unpaid staff, following the exchange's abrupt announcement that it would wind down operations. Xia said on X that he has “not disappeared” and addressed the operational chaos that followed the shutdown announcement, according to Wu Blockchain's reporting on the exchange's unraveling.
Bitmart's shutdown became official on July 26, 2026, when the exchange announced an orderly wind-down of its entire trading platform after roughly nine years in operation, citing its operating conditions and the broader crypto market environment. New registrations, deposits and trading orders were suspended immediately, with all trading services set to end on August 26, 2026, and the platform slated for full closure by January 31, 2027.
Withdrawals open, but slow
Bitmart has said withdrawals remain open, but users have reported delays and extra security checks, with the exchange warning that requests may face additional scrutiny including reviews of identity documents, login devices, withdrawal addresses, trading history and source of funds. The Block reported that global CEO Nathan Chow, who took the role in April 2025 after Xia moved to group president, was fired on July 24 without prior knowledge of the wind-down decision — a detail that has fed user suspicion about how the shutdown was actually managed internally. On-chain tracking from Lookonchain found only 58 wallets had withdrawn a combined $805,000 in the first 24 hours after the shutdown was announced, a small fraction of what a platform with nine years of deposits would be expected to move.
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BMX collapses alongside user confidence
The exchange's native BMX token has borne the brunt of the fallout, collapsing roughly 81.5% over seven days to trade around $0.057. That decline has tracked closely with the erosion of user trust: a leadership shake-up, a CEO publicly saying he wasn't consulted on the decision that cost him his job, and a founder who went quiet for days before finally addressing the backlash all point to an exchange that lost control of its own narrative during a shutdown it framed as orderly.
What happens next
With a full year still to run before Bitmart's official closure in January 2027, the exchange has time to work through its withdrawal backlog, but the damage to its reputation is likely already done. For users still holding funds on the platform, Xia's statement is unlikely to fully resolve concerns raised by the CEO's abrupt firing and the slow pace of withdrawals so far — the coming weeks of the trading wind-down through August 26 will be the real test of whether Bitmart can close out its operations without a full-blown user revolt.
