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 因 MiCA 监管过渡期结束而停止运营，ZachXBT 警示其流动性问题可能无法处理用户提现，这暴露了合规压力下二线交易所的生存危机。
📊 **市场影响**
短期加剧市场对小型交易所的信任恐慌，可能引发资金向 Binance、OKX 等头部平台迁移；中期来看，MiCA 的落地将加速行业洗牌，合规成本提高会淘汰一批不合规机构。
💡 **操作建议**
立即将资金从非合规交易所转移至已获 MiCA 授权的平台，避免手动审核提现的延迟风险；关注监管动态，优先选择合规性强、流动性好的交易所进行交易。
风险提示：
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