Nine days before announcing its wind-down, the BitMart crypto exchange was talking about 2034.
In a July 17 report, the exchange said assets under management grew 256% and quoted Nenter "Nathan" Chow, its now-former CEO: "We intend to be here for the next eight, and we are building accordingly."
Now, in an X post on July 26, Chow said BitMart had terminated his employment on July 24 and began offboarding him immediately. The BitMart CEO says he was neither consulted nor informed about the closure.
Nenter Chow
A crash before the announcement
BMX, BitMart's Ethereum-based utility token, plunged more than 60% in one hour to about $0.11 at 11:35 am UTC on July 24, according to CoinGecko. But BitMart published its shutdown notice at 1:40 am UTC on July 26, or about 38 hours later.
The timing establishes that the selloff preceded the notice, but not who sold or whether anyone knew about the closure.
Five hours before the plunge, BitMart suspended its automated market-making bot, a service its July report said deepened BMX liquidity.
No redemption for BMX
BitMart offers holders a 25% fee discount and says it plans to use 20% of quarterly profits to buy and destroy BMX.
It also planned to make BMX the payment token for a future BitMart blockchain.
As of press time, the token still trades elsewhere, so it isn't literally worthless, but its main current utility, a discount on BitMart trading fees, is disappearing with the platform.
- BitMart began halting new registrations, deposits and orders on July 26.
- It asks users to close positions by 1:00 a.m. UTC on Aug. 26 and request withdrawals by 5:00 am.
- The global platform is scheduled to close January 31, 2027.