BitMart has appointed business advisory firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) to independently review its finances, assess remaining assets, manage creditor claims and help establish an orderly withdra
BitMart has appointed business advisory firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) to independently review its finances, assess remaining assets, manage creditor claims and help establish an orderly withdrawal process. The review will determine whether the exchange can partially resume operations, attract a buyer or proceed with a full wind-down.
The move comes after BitMart halted trading on August 26, 2026, following widespread withdrawal problems and concerns from users over frozen funds and the exchange’s financial position. BitMart had already announced plans to cease operations, with its official notice confirming that the platform is scheduled to fully terminate operations on January 31, 2027.
For affected users, BitMart says further guidance will cover fund verification, withdrawals and potential recoveries. The exchange also plans additional independent oversight of operations and asset custody, while A&M’s assessment will ultimately determine the path forward.
Update on the Appointment of Alvarez & Marsal as Financial Adviser and Near-Term Action Plan
Dear BitMart Users,
Following careful consideration, BitMart has appointed Alvarez & Marsal (“A&M”) as its external financial adviser. A&M will assist BitMart and its legal advisers in…
— BitMart (@BitMartExchange) September 9, 2026
BitMart’s latest update has done little to ease frustration among users who have been unable to access their funds. The exchange appointed Alvarez & Marsal but did not publish an audited asset balance, estimated customer shortfall, recovery rate or specific withdrawal timetable alongside the announcement. Instead, users were given five business days for the launch of a feedback portal and up to three weeks for further details on the proposed action plan.
One affected ATEG project said its token had been listed on BitMart for only 6.5 weeks, arguing that the exchange’s No. 16 CoinMarketCap ranking, global reputation and years of operation were not guarantees of resilience. Another user used the episode to argue for self-custody, contrasting centralized exchanges that hold customer assets with non-custodial platforms that provide access without taking custody of user funds.
If an exchange once ranked No. 16 on CoinMarketCap can reach this point, what does a ranking truly guarantee?
BitMart had spent years building a global name, launching major products and presenting opportunities connected to brands such as SpaceX. From the outside, everything… https://t.co/gATNQXrUOL
— Mohamed Higazie (@Founder_ATEG) September 9, 2026
On August 6, Echo Base said it offered up to $10 million to fund a pre-negotiated bankruptcy restructuring, while an affiliate later demanded the execution of a withdrawal request submitted on July 24. Echo Base said it made 15 attempts to contact BitMart over that withdrawal without receiving a response, and subsequently formed an ad hoc claimholder committee with legal advisers.
BitMart’s situation has drawn comparisons with previous centralized-exchange failures, particularly FTX, but the two cases are materially different. BitMart announced an orderly cessation of operations, initially setting August 26, 2026, as the end of trading and January 31, 2027, as the final platform shutdown. It later began considering a restructuring that could include a phased restart and creditor distributions.
By contrast, FTX collapsed into bankruptcy in November 2022 following a liquidity crisis and allegations that customer funds had been misused. The biggest difference is the recovery process. FTX entered a formal bankruptcy process that eventually involved the recovery and liquidation of billions of dollars in assets.
Its reorganization plan projected that 98% of customers with claims below $50,000 would receive 118% of their allowed claim, although payments were calculated using cryptocurrency values at the time of FTX’s 2022 collapse rather than current market prices. FTX had also recovered between $14.5 billion and $16.3 billion in assets for distribution. BitMart, meanwhile, has not established that it faces an equivalent multibillion-dollar shortfall.
When users leave crypto on a centralized exchange, they are effectively relying on another company to safeguard and return those assets. This creates counterparty risk, even if the blockchain itself continues operating normally, users can lose access to their funds if the intermediary faces insolvency, operational failures, regulatory action or a liquidity crisis. Centralized exchanges combine trading with custody, which makes their financial and operational health directly relevant to customers.
The FTX collapse demonstrated how quickly this risk can become systemic. FTX had been processing more than $10 billion in daily trading volume before its November 2022 collapse, yet its failure was linked to leverage, related-party exposure and the misuse of customer funds. This showed that a large trading platform can appear highly successful while weaknesses inside its corporate structure remain largely invisible to ordinary users.
The industry has moved toward separating trading, custody and collateral management. One example is Binance’s arrangement with Spanish bank BBVA, where some client assets can be held away from the exchange, reducing the amount of customer collateral directly exposed to exchange-level risks.
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