Crypto exchange CoinEx announced Tuesday it will wind down operations after nine years, citing a prolonged market downturn, shrinking trading volumes and liquidity, and mounting regulatory and compliance costs.
The exchange will halt new user registrations, suspension of referral commissions and other rewards, and place futures contracts into a "Reduce-Only" mode. CoinEx will also stop accepting new orders or subscriptions across its fiat, margin trading, lending, earn, staking and strategic trading services.
"After much reflection, I have come to accept a hard truth. CoinEx did not become one of the industry's leading exchanges, and the security and compliance risks of running a crypto exchange have become increasingly difficult to contain," CEO Haipo Yang wrote on X.
The closure adds to a wave of crypto exchange shutdowns this year, including BitMart, BitMEX and AscendEX, all driven by similar pressures.
Under the wind-down schedule, CoinEx will discontinue all non-spot services and onchain deposits — except CET deposits — on Sept. 22. All spot trading will cease on Sept. 29, with non-USDT assets processed. Withdrawals will end on Dec. 22, after which the platform will fully cease operations. Any unwithdrawn USDT will be transferred to an independent custodian that will charge a monthly custody fee.
CoinEx will also repurchase CET tokens at their initial listing price of 0.005 USDT per token, a level slightly above Monday's trading price.
CoinEx Wallet and CoinEx Vault will remain operational, as they function independently of the exchange. The platform was launched in December 2017 by crypto mining pool ViaBTC and, according to CoinMarketCap, ranked 33rd with $58 million in 24-hour trading volume.
