The ask was concrete: submit the wallets, the assets, the liabilities and the usable reserves for independent verification by Aug. 19. BitMart founder Sheldon Lee’s reply addressed none of that.
What Lee said instead was that the account behind the demand had been hacked.
That mismatch runs through the entire episode. Customers keep asking where their money went. What comes back is commentary on who published what, and on which platform.
The demand was posted to the exchange’s Chinese-language X account. It urged Lee and business partner Yi Li to submit the books to independent verification, attaching a deadline for a response.
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.
Then came the direct question: “Are you willing to accept independent third-party audits?”
Lee’s response headed in a completely different direction.
“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.”
Asked about the unpaid workforce, 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.”
Worth a second pass. That isn’t a rejection of the claim that salaries went unpaid — it’s a queue position.
The users aren’t buying the hack story
An X user going by BeardStaff said their holdings had been locked up since the July 26 announcement, and that a dedicated VIP manager cut them from Telegram on the same day withdrawals ground to a halt. “Where is my $10 million?” they posted.
Another account took aim at the hacking explanation itself.
“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 weighed in as well. “If you actually have the liquidity, then simply return the funds to everyone instead of posting vague statements.”
That’s the only test with any teeth. Either the liquidity is there or it isn’t, and the sole proof anyone has requested is a wallet actually sending money.
The wind-down that hasn’t unwound
BitMart announced last month that it was winding down operations, naming Aug. 26 as its final trading day. Many users report withdrawals remain blocked.
An exchange shutting its doors is meant to be a tidy affair: trading halts, balances settle, customers leave holding what they brought. In this case the trading calendar keeps ticking forward while the funds sit still.
A funded restructuring offer, with no reply
Roshan Dharia, CEO of distressed investment firm Echo Base, told CoinDesk over Telegram that his firm had put a funded restructuring package on the table for BitMart — debtor-in-possession financing plus equity at emergence, underwritten by Echo Base as a claimholder. According to him, BitMart never replied.
Dharia’s explanation of why a quiet settlement is off the table is the most incisive assessment anyone has offered here.
“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.”
Look closely at the mechanics. A retail claim doesn’t lapse simply because nobody managed to locate the person holding it. Each unreached customer remains a liability at full value — which is precisely where the quiet-settlement path Lee appears to be pursuing runs into arithmetic and loses.
What happens after the deadline
Should no verifiable answer land by the deadline, the anonymous X poster said they would hand over every piece of data, fund lead and item of evidence they hold to law enforcement, regulators, lawyers and media outlets around the world.
Lee’s stated plan is to take the matter to X for forensics and to the police over the post. Two sides marching toward the authorities over one set of facts, approaching from opposite ends.
The backdrop nobody at BitMart controls
Centralized exchanges are struggling in general right now. July saw combined CEX volumes drop 23.9% to $3.76T, the weakest showing since November 2023. Over the same stretch, DEX spot market share reached a record 19.5% and RWA perps touched $460B.
Those figures are what give the story its heft. Every custodial blowup doubles as an unintentional advertisement for self-custody — and market share is already drifting that way without any prompting.
Confidence in a centralized venue reduces to one question: can you withdraw today. For BitMart’s customers, that answer has been fixed since July 26.
Still holding a balance on BitMart? Don’t hold out for an audit Lee hasn’t signed up for. Start documenting immediately — screenshots of your balance, every support ticket, the date your first withdrawal failed, and any Telegram conversation with a VIP manager before it vanishes the way BeardStaff’s did. Dharia is correct that a courtroom is the destination. Claimants arriving with a paper trail fare better than those arriving with an anecdote.