Hong Kong-headquartered digital asset platform CoinEx announced that it will shut down its services, pointing to the increasingly challenging environment of operating a cryptocurrency exchange.
Account holders have until December 22 to pull out their assets when the platform will permanently shut down, exactly nine years after its initial launch, chief executive and founder Haipo Yang posted on X on Tuesday.
“CoinEx failed to establish itself as a top-tier industry platform, while the safety and regulatory threats associated with managing a crypto exchange have grown progressively harder to manage,” Yang explained.
He mentioned that he contemplated a potential acquisition of CoinEx, though he decided against it because he felt it was not “the proper way to conclude this path. A clean conclusion is the correct conclusion.”
CoinEx records a 24-hour trading volume of approximately $70 million according to data from CoinGecko, falling significantly behind prominent Asia-centric platforms such as CoinW at $1.18 billion and Gate at $1.6 billion.
This shutdown highlights a broader pattern where legacy platforms face difficulties retaining market share as the sector evolves and undergoes consolidation. BitMart and BitMEX, which launched in 2017 and 2014 respectively, each declared their shutdowns in July, pointing toward signs that they fell victim to a drop in retail spot trading activity.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/09/15/hong-kong-crypto-exchange-coinex-to-cease-operations-after-9-years-in-business.
