BitMart Shuts Down After 9 Years, BMX Token Crashes 58%

The market reaction was immediate. BMX, BitMart's own token, fell roughly 58–63% within 24 hours, landing around 8–16 cents depending on the tracker, and dragging its market cap down to about $27 million. That's on top of a token that had already lost close to 70% of its value over the past year.

BMX price trackers, side by side (July 26):

The spread between trackers comes down to which exchange feed each one pulls from and how fast it updates, but the direction is the same everywhere: a sharp, single-day collapse.

What BitMart actually told users

BitMart cut off new sign-ups, deposits, and new trading orders at 01:30 UTC on Sunday. Futures accounts were switched to reduce-only, so traders can close positions but can't open new ones. Withdrawals stay open through the wind-down, though the exchange has flagged that some requests may face extra scrutiny, things like identity checks, device and IP verification, and source-of-funds questions.

That's already causing friction. Users on social media, particularly in Chinese and Vietnamese crypto channels, have reported USDT withdrawals sitting pending for hours without processing.

Why this matters beyond BitMart

BitMart isn't closing in isolation. Just three days earlier, BitMEX, the exchange credited with inventing the perpetual swap, announced its own shutdown after 11 years, effective September. BitMEX's token, BMEX, dropped nearly 90% on that news, and the exchange has since been hit with a $60 million lawsuit tied to alleged rigged liquidations.

Some traders reportedly even mixed up BMX and BMEX in the confusion.

That's two established exchanges gone in one week, and by some counts, BitMart is the third centralized exchange to announce closure this month alone. Industry watchers are reading it less as coincidence and more as a sign that mid-tier exchanges, generally the ones sitting in the $1–3 billion daily volume range, are finding the business harder to sustain.

Two shutdowns, one week:

The numbers don't quite add up, and that's the story

Here's the part worth pausing on: BitMart wasn't a ghost town. It had recently reported around $1.6 billion in 24-hour trading volume, up 51% from the prior period, with bitcoin making up close to half of that. Blockchain tracking firm Arkham showed BitMart-linked wallets still holding roughly $71 million in crypto as of Sunday, down from about $102 million earlier in July, with a large chunk of that sitting in a project called WeFi's WFI token.

A platform still clearing that kind of volume shutting down without a clearly stated reason is exactly what's fueling speculation across crypto circles.

BitMart by the numbers (as reported before/around the shutdown):

What happens to BMX holders now

This is the practical question for anyone holding the token. BMX gave users things like trading-fee discounts and account perks tied to the platform itself. Once the exchange stops matching orders, that utility mostly disappears. BitMart hasn't published any redemption plan or separate valuation path for BMX holders, so for now, the token is trading purely on uncertainty.

What users should do before August 26

• Cancel any open orders
• Redeem Earn, staking, or lending products
• Download your account and trade history for your records
• Start withdrawals early, given reports of delays and extra verification steps

BitMart has not yet responded to requests for further comment on the reasons behind the closure.

Related reading: BitMEX's shutdown and the mid-tier exchange shakeout | How to safely withdraw funds before an exchange closes | What happens when a CEX shuts down: a user's guide