AscendEX
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
AscendEX was a centralized cryptocurrency exchange launched in 2018 as BitMax and rebranded in March 2021. It offered spot and futures trading, staking and other crypto services to retail and institutional users. In 2021 it completed a $50 million Series B funding round led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC, but later that year its hot wallets were drained in a roughly $78 million hack attributed to the Lazarus Group.
02 / AscendEX FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
AscendEX collapsed under a combination of regulatory, financial and liquidity blows. Its hot wallets were drained of about $78 million in a December 2021 hack attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group. It failed to obtain authorization under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, and a strategic transaction that was supposed to shore up its liquidity fell through. By June 2026, on-chain investigator ZachXBT documented withdrawal delays of days or weeks and found the exchange's hot wallets nearly empty of major assets like ETH, USDT and SOL — an effective liquidity crisis in which the exchange admitted some users might not recover their full balances.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Operations ended
crypto.news reported the platform’s 6 July 2026 notice that AscendEX (formerly BitMax, Singapore-associated CEX) ceased operations effective 1 July 2026: no new accounts, deposits or trading; access limited to offboarding.
- Bankruptcy
The same notice, as reported, moved withdrawals to manual review from 6 July 2026, said full balances might not be recoverable, and warned a formal insolvency process could follow.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
On June 26, 2026, on-chain investigator ZachXBT publicly warns that AscendEX is delaying user withdrawals for days or weeks and that its hot wallets are critically depleted of ETH, USDT and SOL.
- 02
On July 1, 2026, AscendEX ceases operations, citing the lack of authorization under the EU's MiCA regulation and a failed strategic transaction; new registrations, deposits, trading and staking are suspended, leaving accounts usable only for withdrawal requests.
- 03
On July 6, 2026, automated withdrawals are suspended entirely: all requests move to manual review with no guaranteed timelines or amounts, and the exchange acknowledges possible formal insolvency proceedings.
- 04
In an August 22, 2026 customer update, AscendEX targets September 5 for a claims portal where users can review recorded balances and submit claims — with no estimate of recovery or timetable for withdrawals to resume.