Cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx has announced that it is officially closing its doors after nearly ten years in business. Operating out of its headquarters in the Seychelles, the platform revealed that it is entering an orderly wind-down period designed to ensure that all user assets remain fully backed and safely returned to their rightful owners.
The closure marks the end of an era for a platform that originally launched on December 22, 2017. True to its founding timeline, the exchange will formally cease operations exactly nine years later, on December 22, 2026. Founder and CEO Haipo Yang emphasized user protection and transparency as top priorities in a public statement released to the global crypto community, addressing the difficult reality behind the platform’s final chapter.
"Dear CoinEx Community, Today, I am announcing that CoinEx will cease operations and begin an orderly wind-down," Yang stated, reassuring users that the platform’s financial health remains strong despite the decision to shut down. He added that the exchange maintains reserves exceeding 100%, meaning every single user asset is fully backed and readily available for withdrawal.
The decision to shutter the exchange stems from a combination of challenging industry factors, including persistent market downturns, declining trading volumes across various digital asset sectors, and steadily rising regulatory compliance costs. Rather than attempting to offload the struggling business to a third party, Yang made the deliberate choice to pursue a clean and transparent closure. He noted that he did not feel handing the platform and the community’s hard-earned trust over to a new owner was the right way to conclude the journey.
To facilitate a smooth exit for its user base, CoinEx opened its withdrawal window on September 15, 2026. Users have been instructed to clear their balances ahead of the final deadline scheduled for 02:00 UTC on December 22, 2026. While services are phasing out gradually through the remainder of September, core wallet and vault functions remain unaffected for the time being. However, users who fail to withdraw their funds before the December cutoff will face a 5% monthly custody fee applied to remaining balances until a final absolute claim cutoff date on August 22, 2028.
In addition to addressing standard user balances, CoinEx has outlined a specific plan for its native utility token, CET. The platform announced that CET tokens will be repurchased at their initial issuance price of 0.005 USDT with no purchase cap imposed by the company. At the time of the wind-down announcement, CET was trading at approximately $0.00049. This price reflects a steep decline of around 97% from the token’s all-time high of $0.15, which was originally reached during the height of the crypto market cycle in 2018.
The wind-down announcement comes a little over three years after CoinEx was forced to exit the United States market amid regulatory pressures. In February 2023, New York State Attorney General Letitia James filed a formal lawsuit against CoinEx for operating within the state without proper registration. The legal challenge culminated in June 2023, when CoinEx agreed to pay a settlement of a little over $1.7 million to resolve the New York state lawsuit and officially terminate its operations for US-based customers.
The closure of CoinEx highlights the ongoing financial and regulatory pressures facing mid-tier digital asset exchanges in an increasingly demanding global market environment. As the platform moves through its final months of operation, industry observers and former users will be closely monitoring the execution of the wind-down process to ensure that all promised asset backing and repurchases are fulfilled smoothly before the final deadline in late 2026.
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