BitMart's Global CEO Nathan Chow says he had no role in the decision to wind down the exchange and only learned the shutdown was going public around the same time customers did. "On 24 July 2026 I was informed that my employment as Global CEO was being terminated and that my offboarding would begin immediately," Chow said in a statement, adding he had not been given a confirmed departure date and "played no role in the wind-down decision."
The termination came two days before BitMart publicly announced it would wind down its trading platform, leaving Chow's account of the sequence — fired first, informed of the shutdown plan only as it became public — at odds with how a leadership transition of that scale would normally be communicated internally at a major exchange.
Token Price Collapses on the News
BitMart's native token, BMX, fell nearly 60% within 24 hours of the shutdown announcement, trading near $0.066. The reaction reflects how quickly confidence in an exchange's native token can evaporate once a wind-down becomes public, regardless of how orderly the process is presented to users.
Related: Bitmart Founder Breaks Silence as Shutdown Withdrawal Delays Mount
The Wind-Down Timeline
BitMart halted new registrations and deposits on July 26, moved futures positions to reduce-only, and stopped accepting new spot orders. Trading services are set to end entirely on August 26, when remaining futures positions will be settled, with the platform's official operations winding down completely by January 31, 2027. Users will retain login access through that period to view records and submit withdrawal requests, though the company has not publicly responded to Chow's account of his own termination.
