CoinEx Closes After Nine Years Of Operation

CoinEx: Nine Years After Launch, the Exchange Calls It Quits

17h05 ▪5min read ▪ byLydie M.
Getting informed▪Centralized Exchange (CEX)Summarize this article with:

CoinEx will disappear on December 22, 2026, exactly nine years after its launch. The exchange started reducing its services on September 15 and now asks its users to withdraw their funds. Spot trading will stop on September 29. CoinEx explains its decision by the prolonged weakness of the crypto market, the drop in volumes and liquidity, as well as compliance costs that have become too burdensome.

In brief

• CoinEx will permanently close on December 22, 2026.
• Spot trading will end as of September 29.
• The exchange claims to have reserves exceeding 100% of its clients’ assets.

CoinEx gives three months to its users

New registrations are already closed. Since September 15, CoinEx no longer accepts new operations on several services, including lending, staking, or crypto margin trading. The schedule resembles the one followed this summer by BitMEX, which had announced its closure after eleven years of operation.

On September 22, CoinEx will stop all its services except crypto spot market. On-chain deposits will also be blocked, except for CET, the platform’s native token. One week later, on September 29, spot trading will stop as well. CoinEx Smart Chain and OneSwap are scheduled to close the same day. Users will then have nearly three months to withdraw their assets.

On December 22, withdrawals will be cut off and the crypto platform will close. CoinEx opened on December 22, 2017. The chosen date thus completes exactly nine years of operation.

CoinEx assures that its reserves cover over 100% of the assets held by its clients. This claim comes from the platform itself. Withdrawals must remain available throughout the closing period.

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The CET will be bought back at 0.005 USDT

The closure also raises the question of CET. The crypto platform chose a fairly straightforward solution: between September 15 and September 29, the exchange will buy back its token at 0.005 USDT per CET, its initial listing price. No volume limit is planned. CETs still present on accounts after this period will be automatically converted at the same price.

Founder and CEO Haipo Yang states that he considered selling CoinEx. He says he ultimately preferred to shut down the company rather than transfer the platform to a new owner.

To explain this exit, CoinEx cites several issues at once: a long-depressed market, declining volumes, weaker liquidity, and increasing regulatory requirements in several jurisdictions. Compliance costs and operational uncertainty would have eventually exceeded what the company deemed acceptable.

However, CoinEx is not leaving after just a few difficult months. The crypto exchange survived the 2018 bear market, the 2022 crash, and several periods of high volatility. It closes in 2026. And it is not alone.

Exchange closures multiply in 2026

BitMEX announced its departure in July. A few days later, BitMart also began the progressive closure of its platform. Bit.com had already started its own withdrawal earlier. CoinEx now joins the list.

More broadly, more than 100 crypto projects had already closed, filed for bankruptcy, or ceased operations in 2026 Exchanges, crypto wallets, DeFi protocols, and blockchains are affected

CoinEx is also carrying another recent case. In June, TRM Labs claimed to have identified 3.84 billion dollars of flows between the exchange and several sanctioned Iranian entities over more than seven years. CoinEx contested the existence of business relations with the Iranian government or the concerned platforms.

However, the platform does not present this case as the reason for its closure. Its official announcement primarily mentions the crypto market, volumes, liquidity, and compliance. For clients, the schedule is now more urgent than the reasons for leaving: September 22 for stopping non-spot services, September 29 for the end of trading, and December 22 for the last withdrawals. After this date, CoinEx will no longer be accessible.

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Lydie M.

Enseignante et ingénieure IT, Lydie découvre le Bitcoin en 2022 et plonge dans l’univers des cryptomonnaies. Elle vulgarise des sujets complexes, décrypte les enjeux du Web3 et défend une vision d’un futur numérique ouvert, inclusif et décentralisé.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.

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