CoinEx is shutting down its centralized exchange after nearly nine years, laying out a staged closure that began on Sept. 15 and will end with the withdrawal deadline on Dec. 22, 2026. The company said the decision followed a prolonged crypto downturn, weaker trading activity and liquidity across the industry, and rising regulatory and compliance costs.
Under the timetable in CoinEx’s Sept. 14 cessation notice, new user registrations stopped on Sept. 15, futures markets moved to reduce-only mode the same day, and spot trading is scheduled to end on Sept. 29. CoinEx Wallet and CoinEx Vault are not part of the exchange shutdown and will continue to operate separately.
Services close in stages through September
CoinEx said futures traders can now only reduce existing positions and cannot open new ones or expand current trades. On Sept. 15, the platform also halted referral rebates along with new subscriptions or orders for fiat services, margin trading, loans, Earn, staking and strategic trading products.
A broader shutdown is scheduled for Sept. 22, when the exchange plans to end futures, fiat, margin, lending, Earn, staking, strategic trading and its OnChain service. Any futures positions still open at that point are set to be forcibly settled using index prices.
Spot markets will remain active until Sept. 29. At that time, CoinEx said unfilled spot orders will be canceled, bringing trading on the exchange to a close.
Asset handling and CET repurchase plan
The exchange also outlined how customer balances will be processed once spot trading stops. According to the notice, assets that have external liquidity may be sold in batches and converted into USDT. Tokens without outside liquidity should be withdrawn before the cutoff by users who want to retain those assets.
CoinEx’s exchange token, CET, will be repurchased at 0.005 USDT. The company said it will maintain a buy order at that price through Sept. 29 and waive CET/USDT trading fees during the repurchase window. Any CET still left on the platform after that period is scheduled to be automatically converted at the same price.
Withdrawal deadline extends to December
Users will still be able to withdraw assets until 02:00 UTC on Dec. 22, 2026. After that deadline, any unwithdrawn USDT will be moved into what CoinEx described as independent custody.
The company said those remaining USDT balances will incur a monthly custody fee equal to 5% of the original balance recorded at the deadline. It also set Aug. 22, 2028 as the final date for users to submit claims for assets left after the withdrawal window closes.
Earlier regulatory and compliance pressures
CoinEx’s shutdown notice attributes the closure to market and operating conditions, not to a single case. Still, the wind-down comes after several years of regulatory and compliance pressure.
In 2023, CoinEx withdrew from the U.S. following a settlement with the New York Attorney General. That agreement required refunds for New York investors and barred the platform from serving New York customers or opening new U.S. accounts.
More recently, the company came under scrutiny after a June 2026 Wall Street Journal report linked billions of dollars in transactions to Iran-related entities. CoinEx disputed that interpretation, saying it had no commercial relationship with Iranian government-linked entities and that transaction flows alone did not show knowledge or support. The company said it had strengthened geo-fencing, sanctions screening, know-your-customer procedures and transaction monitoring.
What continues after the exchange closes
The shutdown applies to CoinEx’s centralized exchange, including trading, deposits and withdrawals under the published timetable. It does not extend to CoinEx Wallet or CoinEx Vault, which the company said will continue operating separately under their own service terms.
The next confirmed milestones are Sept. 22 for the end of non-spot services, Sept. 29 for the close of spot trading and CET processing, and Dec. 22, 2026 for the final withdrawal cutoff.
Source: crypto.news