A post from BitMart’s Chinese-language X account, BitMart_zh, which appears to be operated by a BitMart employee, gave founder Sheldon Xia and co-founder Wei “Terence” Li until August 19 to p
A post from BitMart’s Chinese-language X account, BitMart_zh, which appears to be operated by a BitMart employee, gave founder Sheldon Xia and co-founder Wei “Terence” Li until August 19 to publicly disclose the exchange’s wallets, assets, liabilities and a workable repayment plan.
BitMart users demand fund transparency and a repayment plan by Aug. 19Translated from the original Chinese into English for readers’ convenience
Xia responded the same day, sheldonbitmart, calling the letter’s contents “fabricated rumors” and saying BitMart would file a police report and send X a legal demand for “technical and data forensics.”
If you actually have the liquidity then simply return the funds to everyone instead of posting vague statements?
Your actions have caused real people to lose access to funds with little transparency….
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) August 17, 2026
On-chain investigator ZachXBT pushed back within hours:
“If you actually have the liquidity then simply return the funds to everyone instead of posting vague statements?” he wrote.
Adding that BitMart’s “actions have caused real people to lose access to funds with little transparency.”
Like BitMart’s wind-down, Polygon’s zkEVM Mainnet Beta also underwent a planned shutdown, with the sequencer sunset completed in July 2026 and users directed to claim eligible assets.
The exchange became public three weeks into a wind-down that has already reshuffled BitMart’s leadership. Nathan Chow was terminated as global chief executive on July 24, two days before BitMart announced it would stop accepting new deposits and begin winding down trading, citing “operating conditions, market environment and future strategic direction.”
Chow has said he learned of the shutdown once it was public and had no role in the decision, having outlined expansion plans for the exchange just weeks before. BitMart’s token, BMX, fell roughly 58% in the 24 hours that followed the announcement.
Xia denied on August 8 that he or other executives had withdrawn funds ahead of users, saying the company was reviewing and consolidating its assets and considering a third-party audit. Li resigned as chief product officer on August 13, saying he was “not responsible for the exchange’s core business” and had “no authority over platform assets, accounts, or matters relating to user funds.”
Its own transparency page says one will follow “at an appropriate time,” and so far the exchange has shared only a partial list of wallet addresses covering a portion of its total holdings.
The August 17 letter, which refers to Li as “Yi Li,” also raises allegations it says still need verification: that accounts linked to Li held tens of millions of dollars in assets with a record of large withdrawals, pointing to his past social media posts about watches, wine and jewelry as context. The letter’s authors say they have not published the underlying material and are not treating it as proven. Li has not responded to that specific allegation.
The letter also says employees are owed last month’s salary and compensation, a claim BitMart has not addressed beyond Xia’s statement on fund priority.
The Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation into the exchange after a December 2021 hack that cost customers about $196 million, an inquiry that BitMart-linked entities tried and failed to narrow the following year.
Elan Future Inc. filed a complaint with the SEC and Lithuanian authorities in 2023 alleging BitMart misappropriated more than $400,000 in customer tokens. Two users sued BitMart’s parent company, GBM Foundation, in federal court in New Jersey in December 2021, seeking to enforce a settlement over fraud and misappropriation claims.
The letter says that if Xia and Li do not respond by August 19, its authors will submit their data and evidence to law enforcement, regulators, lawyers and media worldwide.
