Cryptocurrency Exchange CoinEx to Cease Operations
Cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx announced Tuesday it will cease operations and begin an orderly wind-down, with the platform set to close on December 22, exactly nine years after its launch in 2017. Users have until this deadline to withdraw their funds.
Founder and CEO Haipo Yang cited a combination of prolonged market weakness and increasing compliance demands as the reasons for the decision. “The security and compliance risks of running a crypto exchange have become increasingly difficult to contain,” Yang wrote on X, characterizing the closure as a deliberate exit rather than a forced one.
Yang stated that he had seriously considered selling CoinEx but ultimately decided against it, aiming for what he described as a “clean ending” for the platform’s staff, users, and CoinEx token holders, rather than transferring ownership to a new entity.
The wind-down process will follow a fixed schedule. New account registrations and referral rewards have already been halted, and futures trading has transitioned to a reduce-only mode. Non-spot services concluded on September 22, with spot trading set to end on September 29. Withdrawals will remain open until the final closure on December 22.
Holders of CoinEx’s native token, CET, will also have a built-in off-ramp. Between September 15 and September 29, CoinEx will repurchase the token at its original listing price of 0.005 USDT, with no volume cap. Any remaining balances will be automatically converted at the same rate.
CoinEx stated that its reserve ratio is above 100%, indicating that user assets are fully backed throughout the wind-down process. At the time of the announcement, its reported 24-hour trading volume was in the tens of millions of dollars, significantly lower than that of major global exchanges.
The closure of CoinEx adds it to a growing list of exchanges that have ceased operations this year. BitMEX announced its shutdown after 11 years, and BitMart followed days later, winding down its own nine-year operation.
CoinEx’s exit also comes months after facing scrutiny over its alleged ties to Iran. In June, TRM Labs claimed that over $3.8 billion had flowed between CoinEx and numerous sanctioned Iranian platforms over a seven-year period, a charge the exchange denied at the time.
Withdrawals will continue to be available until December 22, 2026, when CoinEx will formally cease all operations.
