CoinEx to shut down after nearly nine years as trading activity contracts
Cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx has begun a staged shutdown after nearly nine years of operation, with spot trading ending September 29 and platform withdrawals closing on December 22, 2026. The exchange announced the cessation plan on September 14, citing a prolonged crypto downturn, weaker industry trading activity and liquidity, and rising regulatory and compliance costs.
The notice did not name a specific regulator, lawsuit or court order as the immediate trigger for the closure. The company said compliance costs and operational uncertainties had reached levels it no longer considered reasonable.
Shutdown timeline: from reduce-only to withdrawals
The wind-down is already underway. From September 15, CoinEx stopped new registrations, referral rebates and new subscriptions or orders across fiat services, margin trading, loans, Earn products, staking and strategic trading. Futures markets entered reduce-only mode the same day, preventing traders from increasing existing positions or opening new ones.
On September 22, the exchange plans to halt futures, fiat, margin, lending, Earn, staking, strategic trading and its OnChain service, with most on-chain deposits stopping the same day. Open futures positions remaining at that point are scheduled for forced settlement using index prices.
Spot markets remain open until September 29, when unfilled spot orders will be canceled and the exchange will begin processing non-USDT balances. Assets with external market liquidity may be sold in batches and converted to USDT using net sale proceeds, while users holding assets without outside liquidity are being told to withdraw them before the cutoff if they want to keep the tokens in their original form. The deadline for pre-conversion withdrawals is 02:00 UTC on September 29.
Withdrawals from the exchange remain available until 02:00 UTC on December 22. CoinEx said USDT left after the withdrawal period will move into independent custody and incur a monthly custody fee equal to 5 percent of the original balance recorded at the deadline, with August 22, 2028 set as the final claims date. CoinEx Wallet and CoinEx Vault will continue operating separately from the exchange shutdown.
CET exit and the ViaBTC connection
CET, the platform token used across the CoinEx ecosystem, has a separate exit process. The exchange plans to maintain a 0.005 USDT buy order for CET through September 29 and waive trading fees on the CET/USDT pair during the repurchase window. Any CET still held in user accounts after the window closes will be automatically repurchased at the same price. BeInCrypto reported CET trading around 0.00466 USDT on September 15, slightly below the announced repurchase level.
CoinEx Smart Chain and the OneSwap protocol are scheduled to stop operating on September 29, along with the CSC cross-chain bridge redemption window.
The closure also touches the broader mining ecosystem. ViaBTC, the mining pool affiliated with CoinEx founder Haipo Yang, provided a separate operational confirmation on September 15 saying it will discontinue its Withdrawal to CoinEx feature on September 22 because of business changes at its exchange partner. ViaBTC told users with automatic withdrawals set to CoinEx to replace the destination address before the feature closes.
Reserves and regulatory history
CoinEx has said user balances remain fully backed and that its asset reserve ratio exceeds 100 percent. Its proof-of-reserves system uses published wallet information and a Merkle tree allowing users to verify whether account balances were included in a reserve snapshot, and an August 2026 update displayed on the CET page said covered assets remained above 100 percent reserve ratios. The reserve figures are the exchange’s own disclosures.
The shutdown caps a turbulent regulatory history. CoinEx withdrew from the United States after a 2023 settlement with the New York Attorney General, and the exchange more recently denied reported ties to Iran following a Wall Street Journal sanctions report. Despite the controversies, the exchange had continued updating products and infrastructure only days before the exit announcement, including a futures server upgrade on September 10 and the delisting of fourteen tokens under its normal asset-review process on September 11.
Another casualty of the 2026 contraction
CoinEx’s exit adds to a growing list of platforms citing harsh market conditions this cycle. Trading volumes across major exchanges have declined from their peaks, compliance costs have risen across major jurisdictions following new stablecoin and market-structure rules, and smaller venues without deep liquidity or diversified revenue have struggled to remain viable.
For users, the message from the notice is direct: reduce futures exposure before September 22, decide whether to hold non-USDT assets through the conversion process or withdraw them by September 29, and pull remaining funds well before the December 22 withdrawal deadline to avoid the 5 percent monthly custody deduction that follows.
Nearly nine years after its founding, CoinEx becomes the latest reminder that in a maturing, increasingly regulated market, mid-sized exchanges face a shrinking window for survival.
nine years and they still publish a proper wind-down schedule instead of freezing withdrawals overnight. more dignity than most exchange exits
Notable that no regulator is named anywhere in the notice. Compliance costs are killing small exchanges faster than any enforcement action did.
nine years of running an exchange and they just quietly fold. withdrawals open until dec 22 at least, but i wouldnt wait around on that timeline lol
No regulator named, no lawsuit, just compliance costs. That reads like the margin math stopped working more than anything else.
Agreed. Once daily volumes drop below the compliance bill, a quiet wind-down is the rational move. Expect more mid-tier venues to follow before year end
spot gone sept 29, withdrawals gone dec 22. if you still have coins there the correct move is obvious
Agreed. Smaller venues shutting down instead of getting hacked is honestly the better ending, remember 2019?
this. nine years in and they still gave everyone a three month runway on withdrawals, thats more courtesy than most got. still wouldnt test the dec 22 deadline though
reduce-only on futures from day one is the tell. they know their users are hedgers closing out, nobody opens new risk on a dying venue