AscendEX (formerly Bitmax) says it ceased operations on July 1, blaming the EU's new MiCA regime — under which it holds no authorization — plus broader regulatory, financial and operational pressures, cutting off deposits, trading, swaps and staking for all users.

The shutdown follows on-chain sleuth ZachXBT's warning that the exchange had stalled user withdrawals for weeks while still taking deposits, then went silent on X for nine days.

As of July 6, all withdrawals face manual review with automated payouts paused, and AscendEX says it cannot give assurances on timing or amounts. It lost ~$78M to the Lazarus Group in 2021.