CoinEx to cease operation after 9 years, citing ‘significant’ crypto contraction

CoinEx said on Tuesday that it will wind down its exchange operations after nearly nine years in the market, pointing to a prolonged downturn in crypto, shrinking volumes and liquidity, and escalating regulatory and compliance costs that it deemed unsustainable. The exchange said it will immediately stop accepting new user registrations and will suspend referral commissions and other reward programs.

As part of the staged closure, CoinEx will move futures contracts into a Reduce-Only mode and will cease taking new orders or subscriptions across a range of services including fiat trading, margin, lending, earn, staking and strategic trading. The company also outlined a timetable for service shutdowns and asset processing aimed at allowing users to withdraw funds in an orderly fashion.

Under the announced schedule, CoinEx will discontinue non-spot services and onchain deposits (except for CET) starting Sept. 22. From Sept. 29 all spot trading services will be shut down and the platform will begin processing non-USDT assets. The withdrawal window remains open through Dec. 22, when the exchange plans to cease operations; any USDT left unwithdrawn after that date will be moved to an independent custodian that will charge a monthly custody fee.

CoinEx said it will buy back its CET token at its initial listing price of 0.005 USDT per token, a figure described as slightly above the token's level the day before the announcement. The company added that CoinEx Wallet and CoinEx Vault will continue operating independently of the exchange. Launched by mining pool ViaBTC in December 2017, CoinEx is ranked 33rd by CoinMarketCap with roughly $58 million in 24-hour trading volume. The closure adds CoinEx to a group of crypto platforms that have halted operations this year, including BitMart, BitMEX and AscendEX.