Cryptocurrency Exchange CoinEx Announces Phased Shutdown After Nine Years

Cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx has announced a phased wind-down of its operations after nearly nine years in business, pointing to a prolonged market downturn, declining trading volumes, and escalating compliance expenses. The Seychelles-based platform initiated its closure on September 15, 2026, implementing immediate trading and registration restrictions while establishing a final withdrawal deadline of December 22, 2026.

Founder Yang Haipo addressed the closure publicly, noting that carrying unlimited risk for limited revenue was no longer a sustainable choice for the platform. The platform stated that its reserve ratio remains above 100 percent, maintaining that customer assets are fully backed and accessible for withdrawal throughout the transition period.

The cessation schedule began on September 15, 2026, with the suspension of new user registrations, referral rewards, fiat services, margin trading, crypto loans, Earn programs, staking, and strategic trading. Concurrently, futures markets entered a reduce-only mode, barring traders from opening new positions or expanding existing ones.

Derivatives services are scheduled to close completely on September 22, at which point any remaining open positions will undergo forced settlement at index prices. Most blockchain deposit addresses will also be disabled on September 22, with the exception of CET deposits, which remain open until September 29. Spot trading pairs will remain operational until September 29, when all unfilled orders will be canceled alongside the termination of CoinEx Smart Chain and OneSwap services.

CoinEx has outlined specific procedures for handling non-USDT assets and its ecosystem token, CET. Assets with external market liquidity may be sold in batches and converted to USDT using net sale proceeds, while users holding tokens without external liquidity are advised to withdraw them before the September 29 cutoff.

For CET holders, CoinEx established a buyback window running through September 29, offering a repurchase price of 0.005 USDT per token with trading fees waived on CET/USDT pairs. Any CET remaining in accounts after the deadline will undergo automatic repurchase at the same price. BeInCrypto reported that CET was trading near 0.00466 USDT on September 15.

Centralized exchange withdrawals will remain accessible until December 22, 2026. CoinEx warned users against delaying withdrawals due to potential network congestion and processing delays as the deadline approaches.

Any USDT remaining on the exchange after the December 22 cutoff will transfer into independent custody and incur a monthly fee equivalent to 5 percent of the original balance recorded at the deadline. Users retaining stranded funds can submit formal claims until a final cutoff date of August 22, 2028.

The exchange closure is strictly limited to CoinEx trading operations and does not affect the independently structured CoinEx Wallet or CoinEx Vault, which continue to operate under their respective terms. ViaBTC also confirmed that its Bitcoin mining pool operates separately and remains unaffected by the exchange wind-down.