BitMart Exchange Closure: Will Sheldon Lee Respond to the Ultimatum by August 19?

BitMart is shutting down. The crypto exchange has set a final timeline: last trading day is August 26, 2026 and total cessation of activities by January 31, 2027. However, the closure of BitMart exchange is not happening quietly: users and employees have issued a public ultimatum to founder Sheldon Xia, demanding full transparency regarding the remaining funds on the platform by August 19.

The deadline is already set and leaves no room for interpretation. BitMart has announced that trading will definitively stop on August 26, 2026, while the exchange's operations will completely cease by January 31, 2027. Since July 26, the platform has already blocked new registrations, deposits, and new trading activities, effectively initiating the dismantling phase.

A public appeal has put pressure on the exchange's leadership, demanding the disclosure of reserves by August 19. The open letter, published on BitMart's Chinese X account, asks Xia and business partner Yi Li to disclose wallets, assets, liabilities, and reserves that are actually available.

The demands do not stop there: users also want the opening of an independent audit by third parties and the publication of a detailed refund plan. The text also asks Yi Li to explain the origin of the funds in accounts linked to her, which, according to the letter, may have contained tens of millions of dollars — a request for clarification, the authors specify, not an accusation of wrongdoing.

On the internal front, the situation is no less tense. Some employees reportedly have not received their July salaries or the payments due after the announcement of the closure. Xia has responded that employees' assets do not enjoy different treatment from those of customers, asserting that "everyone is a customer" and that there are no special privileges.

This leads to widespread frustration: many users report being unable to withdraw their funds since July 26, the day the dismantling announcement was made. One user, identified as BeardStaff, recounted that their assets became inaccessible on that very day, and that a VIP manager removed them from a Telegram group at the same moment withdrawals were blocked. The user claims to have 10 million dollars stuck on the platform.

Onchain investigator ZachXBT harshly criticized Xia's statements, stating that if the exchange truly has the funds, it should simply return them instead of issuing vague statements. BitMart had previously assured that withdrawals would remain available, albeit subject to additional verification checks, warning that the high volume of requests could extend processing times.

Sheldon Xia has categorically denied the accusations, calling them "fabricated rumors" from a hacked account. He stated that he has gathered complete evidence regarding the content published on X and intends to file a police report, as well as send a legal letter to the X platform requesting technical and forensic investigations into the data. However, Xia has not directly responded to the requests for reserve disclosure or the refund plan.

If a verifiable response does not arrive by August 19, the authors of the open letter have announced that they will send the collected evidence to regulators, law enforcement, lawyers, and media in various jurisdictions. A threat that adds a legal and regulatory dimension to a situation already marked by financial tensions.

This is not the first time BitMart has faced a crisis of trust: in December 2021, the exchange suffered a hack of 196 million dollars, promising at that time to compensate the affected customers. Complicating the current situation is also the restructuring offer made by Echo Base, a company specializing in investments in financially distressed situations. CEO Roshan Dharia stated that he proposed a financing package for BitMart's restructuring, including debtor-in-possession financing, but has not received any response from the exchange.

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