CoinEx gives customers 98 days to empty a solvent exchange

"The security and compliance risks of running a crypto exchange have become increasingly difficult to contain," Yang wrote on X ^[7]. The Hong Kong-founded exchange ^[19] is shutting the centralised trading venue while CoinEx Wallet and CoinEx Vault, described as separate businesses, keep operating ^[14]. Yang did not say whether he received an offer.

From September 15 to September 29, CoinEx will repurchase CET at 0.005 USDT, the price the token listed at, with no cap on volume, and convert leftover balances at the same rate ^[8]. A holder who bought at that listing in 2017 gets the original USDT back and nothing for the nine years since ^[5]. Yang said he wanted a "clean ending" for the platform's staff, users and token holders ^[6].

The exit runs 98 days ^[3], and 84 of them are withdrawal-only ^[2]. The last withdrawal goes out at 02:00 UTC on December 22, 2026 ^[5]. After that, leftover USDT moves into independent custody charged monthly at 5 percent of the original balance, and claims may still be possible into 2028 ^[13]. Twenty of those monthly charges consume the whole balance, so a deposit left behind is exhausted by about August 2028 ^[1].

The venue was small. Reported 24-hour volume around the announcement was in the tens of millions of dollars, well under the largest global exchanges ^[10], and Yang said the platform never reached the top tier of global exchanges ^[15]. TRM Labs alleged in June that more than $3.8 billion had flowed between CoinEx and dozens of sanctioned Iranian platforms over seven years, a claim the exchange denied at the time ^[12]. Spread evenly, that is roughly $543 million a year ^[4] through a book turning over tens of millions a day.

The company's stated reasons are reduced trading activity, thinner liquidity and steadily rising compliance burdens across major markets ^[18], with the company describing those costs and uncertainties as having moved beyond a workable range ^[17]. Nikkei reported the same pressures, thinning trading volume and more onerous regulatory requirements straining digital asset exchanges ^[19]. The less flattering version is that a sub-scale order book stopped covering its fixed costs and that compliance is the part CoinEx chose to publish. The uncapped bid at par for CET argues against that reading: an operator short of cash does not offer to buy its own token back without a limit. CoinEx said the announcement is its final official notice under its name and that any later statements using the brand should be treated as fraudulent ^[16].