More than five weeks after BitMart said it would wind down trading while keeping withdrawals open, customers say they still cannot move funds.
Trading on exchange stopped on 26 August 2026. The exchange’s last detailed public update on X and in its help centre came on 21 August, when it promised a restructuring roadmap no later than 9 September.
As of 1 September, that official X account and other BitMart social channels have not issued a new withdrawal status update.
Wind-down promises versus what users can actually move
BitMart’s 26 July notice framed the closure as an orderly process. New registrations and deposits stopped the same day. Spot and futures trading were scheduled to end at 01:00 UTC on 26 August. Full platform operations were set to cease on 31 January 2027. The notice said withdrawal services would remain available and urged users to finish identity checks, close positions before the trading cutoff, and submit requests before 05:00 UTC on 26 August. It also warned that some requests could face extra review.
On-chain tracking immediately raised questions about the pace of those payouts. Lookonchain reported that in the first 24 hours after the shutdown notice, only 58 wallets withdrew a combined total of about $805,000, including an eight-hour stretch with no processed withdrawals. The Crypto Times documented that early mismatch between the “withdrawals remain available” language and visible outflows.
Founder Sheldon Xia, posting as @sheldonbitmart on 8 August, said the company had not disappeared, had not misappropriated assets, and was inventorying funds while considering courts and third-party auditors. He asked users to wait for official announcements.
The later August update appointed White & Case as restructuring counsel and recast a full wind-down as only one option, with possible phased resumption and creditor distributions still subject to legal and regulatory review.
That shift did not close the complaint cycle. On the day trading ended, users claimed that small-ticket payouts had shrunk to amounts described as negligible after the 21 August restructuring notice.
BitMart did not publicly address those specific small-withdrawal allegations in a new official post.
User accounts after the August 26 cutoff
The gap between policy language and user experience is now the core of the dispute. On 30 August, X user @Szymansk_ii accused BitMart and Xia of blocking withdrawals from what the poster called a “dead exchange,” a post that drew tens of thousands of views and a wave of “not your keys, not your coins” replies.
The claim is an allegation, not an adjudicated finding, but it captures the tone now dominating public discussion.
A day later, another user @DesoulDrew wrote that BitMart still held the poster’s money after 30 days and said the balance was all the user had after a recent job loss. Replies warned the user not to answer private messages from people posing as support, a reminder that stalled withdrawals have also created a secondary scam market.
User @Pramod64120307 described the same pattern in plainer terms: funds still stuck, multiple failed attempts, and a request for “transparency, clear answers” after the exchange had said withdrawals would remain available. That post sat under a wider call for listed-token teams to document complaints and escalate them to regulators.
A more serious claim circulated on 28 August from @bitmart_scam, a victim owned X handle collectively fighting on behalf of all Bitmart users. The advocacy account said relatives in India reported a suicide after about $1,500 became inaccessible and asked why even that amount could not be released if a displayed daily limit reached $2,000.
The account itself said the death and any link to BitMart “must be officially established by the competent authorities.” That caveat matters. The post is a family statement relayed by a campaign account, not a verified official record.
Taken together, the posts describe rejected requests, pending tickets without transaction hashes, and balances that remain visible on-screen while remaining unspendable. None of those individual balances has been independently audited in public. What is documented is the persistence of the complaints after the date BitMart itself treated as the main withdrawal deadline.
Official silence ahead of the September 9 checkpoint
BitMart’s last substantial message to the market is still the 21 August restructuring note. It asked for patience, pointed users to the website, app, and official social channels, and set 9 September as the next formal checkpoint.
A review of exchanges official X handles, @BitMartExchange and @BitMart_zh, shows no later post that confirms a restored withdrawal queue, publishes reserve figures, or explains how pending requests will be treated if the company moves from a wind-down into a creditor process.
That silence is now part of the story. Users are not arguing that BitMart never published a timetable. They are arguing that the timetable has not produced withdrawals they can verify on-chain, and that support channels have not replaced the missing public update.
If the 9 September roadmap treats customer balances as creditor claims rather than immediately payable withdrawals, the legal character of those balances will change even if account screens still show a number.
Until that document appears, the verifiable record is narrow. BitMart said withdrawals would stay open. Lookonchain measured thin early outflows. Official social accounts have not posted a fresh operational update since 21 August. Meanwhile users continue to stress as their withdrawal requests fail. Those four facts, not the loudest accusation attached to them, are what the next official notice has to answer.
Also read: London Stock Exchange Partners with Kraken Parent Payward on UK Stocks
