A five-point ultimatum posted from BitMart’s official Chinese-language account gave Sheldon Xia two days to disclose wallets and pay staff, and he answered by promising a police report.
BitMart’s Own X Account Demands Proof of Reserves by Aug. 19, Founder Calls It a Hack
Posted August 17, 2026 at 5:45 pm EST.
BitMart’s Chinese-language X account published a five-point open letter on Monday demanding that founder Sheldon Xia and a woman the letter identifies as his partner, Nancy Li, account for customer funds by August 19, disclose the exchange’s wallets, assets, liabilities and usable reserves, and pay employees their outstanding wages. Xia answered within hours in a post on X, written in Chinese, that the claims were “fabricated rumors.”
The letter, written in the name of BitMart users and employees, said many customers still cannot withdraw and that staff have not received their final month’s salary or the compensation they are owed. It asked who ordered the withdrawal restrictions, when management first knew the platform could not process them normally, and whether the company kept encouraging deposits after that point. It also asked for a repayment plan setting out remaining assets, total liabilities, a recovery percentage, a payout order, start and finish dates, and acceptance of an independent audit.
Xia said he would “file a police report and send a lawyer’s letter to X, demanding technical and data forensics.” “Employee assets are not prioritized over client assets,” he wrote in the same post. He later added in a post that “this Chinese official account has been hacked and is not posted by the current employee.”
Nine Days Until Trading Stops
BitMart said on July 26 that it would wind down after nine years, and began phasing out new registrations and deposits the same day. Trading ends at 01:00 UTC on August 26, withdrawal requests are due four hours later, and the platform closes for good on January 31, 2027. The company said in its notice that certain withdrawal requests “may be subject to further review in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.”
An Arkham-labeled BitMart wallet has seen balances sliding toward $36 million from about $70 million since that announcement.
An Earlier Denial
Xia posted in Chinese on X on August 8 that “We have not misappropriated any assets,” said the core team was taking inventory of what remained, and said BitMart was considering bringing in courts and independent third-party auditors to produce a transparent report. No wallet addresses, reserve figures or repayment timeline have followed.
The exchange lost roughly $196 million to a hot wallet breach in December 2021. On-chain investigator ZachXBT publicly challenged Xia to act rather than post: “If you actually have the liquidity then simply return the funds to everyone instead of posting vague statements?”
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