The cryptocurrency exchange BitMart is shutting down, with a plan to end all trading services on August 26 and cease operations entirely by January 31, 2027. This development follows a period of instability marked by a dramatic plunge in the value of its native BMX token and user reports of delayed asset withdrawals.

"After a careful evaluation of the Company’s operating conditions, market environment, and future strategic direction, BitMart has made the difficult decision to commence an orderly wind-down of its trading platform operations," the company stated in a Sunday notice.

As part of its shutdown procedure, BitMart has already halted new user registrations and deposits. Additionally, futures trading has been shifted into a reduce-only mode, and its spot markets are no longer taking new orders.

BitMart is the latest in a series of crypto trading platforms to announce closures in recent months. Its decision follows similar announcements this week from BitMEX and Dango, which are also shutting down their respective trading platforms.

The move to wind down came as BitMart’s proprietary token, BMX, plummeted by nearly 70% in value. At the time of writing, BMX was trading at approximately $0.09464, a steep decline from its price of about $0.31 late Friday. The token had dropped to a low of $0.1058 early on Saturday before continuing its downward slide.

Concurrent with the token's collapse, several users on the social media platform X reported that withdrawals from the exchange were taking an unusually long time. Some individuals claimed that their requests to withdraw Tether (USDT) had been left pending for hours.

On-chain data from Arkham showed that wallets attributed to BitMart held approximately $71 million in crypto assets on Sunday, a significant decrease from the roughly $102 million held on July 6. The largest portion of these assets, about $41.5 million, was in WeFi’s WFI tokens, a stablecoin banking platform. In contrast, the tracked wallets contained only about $91,000 in USDT.

In its wind-down announcement, BitMart acknowledged the delays, explaining that certain withdrawal requests might be subject to supplementary compliance and security reviews, which could potentially lengthen processing times.

BitMart did not provide a response to a request for comment from Cointelegraph before this article was published.

Adding to the situation, some users on X appeared to have confused BitMart and its BMX token with the separate exchange BitMEX. On Saturday, an X user known as “Brother Lu” in the Mandarin-speaking crypto community drew attention to the sharp drop in BMX's price while speculating on its cause.

"The whole internet was posting yesterday that it was shutting down on Sept. 30. Did you just wake up?" another user replied, based on a machine translation.

The September 30 date mentioned in the reply was incorrect; BitMEX had announced on Thursday that its shutdown date was September 23. Following that news, BitMEX's own token, BMEX, experienced a 90% drop in value. Several other users within the Mandarin-speaking community also mixed up BMX with BitMEX. It was not immediately apparent whether this confusion had any direct effect on the trading activity of the BMX token.