The demand was specific: open the wallets, the assets, the liabilities and the usable reserves to independent verification, by Aug. 19. The response from BitMart founder Sheldon Lee didn’t touch any of it.
Instead, Lee said the account making the demand had been hacked.
That’s the shape of this whole story. People are asking where their money is. The answer keeps coming back as a statement about who posted what, and where.
The post appeared on the exchange’s Chinese-language account on X. It called on Lee and business partner Yi Li to open the books to independent verification and set a deadline for a reply.
What the post said
“To this day, a bunch of users still can’t withdraw their own money, and a bunch of employees haven’t even received their last month’s salary or the compensation they’re owed. This isn’t some business dispute that can just be brushed off with a single ‘ceasing operations’ statement,” the post said.
And then, plainly: “Are you willing to accept independent third-party audits?”
Lee’s answer went somewhere else entirely.
“We have collected full evidence of the content on X, all of which is fabricated rumors,” Lee said. “During daytime US time, we will file a police report and send a lawyer’s letter to X, demanding technical and data forensics.”
On the unpaid staff, the founder of the Cayman Islands-based exchange said employee assets “are not prioritized over client assets, everyone is a client, and there are no privileges.”
Read that twice. It isn’t a denial that salaries went unpaid. It’s a ranking.
The users aren’t buying the hack story
An X user known as BeardStaff said their assets had been inaccessible since the July 26 announcement, and that a dedicated VIP manager removed them from Telegram the day withdrawals stalled. “Where is my $10 million?” they posted.
Another user went at the hacking claim directly.
“No one asked you if the account was hacked or not,” wrote @chicha_liam. “Answer what people have been asking you since July 26. When will users be able to withdraw their funds?”
Onchain investigator ZachXBT pushed back too. “If you actually have the liquidity, then simply return the funds to everyone instead of posting vague statements.”
That’s the test that matters. Liquidity either exists or it doesn’t, and a wallet moving money is the only proof anyone’s asking for.
The wind-down that hasn’t unwound
Last month, BitMart said it was winding down operations, with Aug. 26 as the final trading day. Many users report withdrawals remain blocked.
A closing exchange is supposed to be an orderly thing. Trading stops, balances clear, people leave with what they came in with. Here the trading calendar keeps moving and the money doesn’t.
A funded restructuring offer, with no reply
Roshan Dharia, CEO of distressed investment firm Echo Base, told CoinDesk via Telegram that his firm has offered BitMart a funded restructuring package including debtor-in-possession financing and equity at emergence, underwritten by Echo Base as a claimholder. He said BitMart has not responded.
Dharia’s read on why this can’t be settled quietly is the sharpest thing anyone has said about the situation.
“A custodial book this size can’t be resolved consensually, because you can’t reliably reach such a dispersed retail customer base, and every user you miss keeps a claim in full,” Dharia said. “There is no version of this that ends well without going to court. The only question for the board is whether BitMart walks in with a plan and a funded sponsor, or is taken there by its own claimants.”
Note the mechanics there. Retail claims don’t expire because you couldn’t find the claimant. Every unreached user stays a full liability, which is why the private-settlement route Lee seems to be running collapses on contact with arithmetic.
What happens after the deadline
If no verifiable response arrives by the deadline, the unidentified poster on X said they would submit all available data, fund leads and evidence to law enforcement, regulators, lawyers and the media worldwide.
Lee, for his part, said he’s going to X for forensics and to the police about the post. Two parties heading to authorities over the same set of facts, from opposite directions.
The backdrop nobody at BitMart controls
Centralized exchanges are having a rough stretch on their own. Combined CEX volumes fell 23.9% to $3.76T in July, the lowest since November 2023. DEX spot market share climbed to a record 19.5% over the same period, and RWA perps hit $460B.
Those numbers give the story its weight. Every custodial failure is an argument for self-custody delivered by someone who didn’t mean to make it, and the market share is already moving in that direction without any help.
Trust in a centralized venue is a single number: can you get your money out today. BitMart’s users have had that answer since July 26, and it hasn’t changed.
If you still have a balance on BitMart, don’t wait for the audit that Lee hasn’t agreed to. Document everything now: screenshots of your balance, every support ticket, the date your withdrawal first failed, and any Telegram thread with a VIP manager before it disappears the way BeardStaff’s did. Dharia is right that this ends in a courtroom. Claimants who show up with a paper trail do better than the ones who show up with a story.
