AscendEX said it stopped operating on July 1 after the MiCA transition period ended.
Following its exit, ZachXBT warned the public about the platform’s liquidity, alleging that it wouldn’t be able to process customer withdrawals.
In its announcement, the crypto exchange said that it was winding down due to challenging market conditions and the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which left several crypto firms unable to operate in the region after failing to obtain the required authorization.
Following the decision, account access has been limited to offboarding processes, while automated withdrawals have been paused. The exchange said all withdrawal requests will now go through manual reviews and may be delayed, require additional information, or fail to be processed.
“We are not in a position to give assurances about timing or amounts today. No account holder or group of account holders is given priority outside the documented review process,” read the notice.
ZachXBT had previously shared on Telegram that several of the platform’s users were experiencing withdrawal delays for days or weeks, with some requests not being processed at all. The blockchain detective said his analysis found that AscendEX’s hot wallets had almost no reserves of major assets such as USDT, ETH, USDC, and SOL, leading him to believe that it was facing liquidity challenges.
Community reports corroborated the situation, with many individuals who had tried to move funds out of the exchange saying their transactions had been stuck in “initiating” for over a week. In a follow-up post, ZachXBT claimed that the platform has yet to process over 7 figures worth of transactions for its users.
He also urged the affected to take legal action by filing police reports and speaking to the relevant regulators in their countries to hold the platform accountable.
The exchange, founded in 2018 by George (Jing) Cao, was once a major crypto platform. However, AscendEX fell victim to a hack in December 2021 that drained about $78 million in digital assets.
In its statement, the firm said that its decision to shut down was heavily influenced by financial and operational issues, explaining that a strategic transaction meant to provide liquidity had failed. It added that market conditions had also contributed to the pressure, causing the company to assess its financial positio
小靓分析：
🦊 小靓解读
AscendEX 于 7 月 1 日因 MiCA 法规退出欧洲市场，宣布停运并限制提现，ZachXBT 警告其流动性不足，用户资金可能无法全额提取。这是合规压力下中小交易所出清的一个典型信号。
📊 市场影响
短期可能加剧市场对二线交易所的信任危机，用户加速将资金转向合规大所，导致 AscendEX 相关币种（如少量小市值代币）出现抛压。中长线来看，MiCA 推动行业洗牌，合规交易所将受益，但整体市场流动性影响有限。
💡 操作建议
建议用户立即将资金从小众或未获 MiCA 授权的交易所转出，优先选择 OKX、Binance 等持牌平台。提现受阻时保持冷静，配合人工审核流程，切勿私下转账给第三方。
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