BitMart says it cannot fully repay customers after 2021 hack, puts $319.5 million shortfall into a restructuring plan

BitMart has admitted it cannot meet customer claims in full and is proposing a three-part repayment structure after saying a five-year-old hack left it with a $319.5 million reserve gap. For high-risk operators and PSPs, the useful part is not the drama; it is the mechanics: how an exchange tries to turn customer balances into a court-reviewed claims process when the treasury is no longer enough to settle everyone at par.

1. BitMart says the deficit stems from the 2021 breach, which cut its reserves by $319.5 million at 4 December 2021 prices. Of that amount, $164.1 million was in ether, $96.5 million in BNB, $51.5 million in bitcoin, and another $7.4 million in other assets.
2. The exchange says it kept operating after the hack by covering the hole with revenue from a rising crypto market. By 2026, that no longer worked: trading-fee and listing income fell, and the futures business turned unprofitable. BitMart also says groups of traders used fee-rebate programs and zero-slippage tools for arbitrage.
3. Pressure increased from May after social-media posts triggered large customer withdrawals, according to the exchange. BitMart also says it received an offer from an unnamed investor to provide $10 million, but it called that amount insufficient to cover the shortfall.
4. The company now wants all wallet balances converted into dollar terms. It plans to use the weighted average token price from 26 July this year until a date to be set later, with customer claims to be assessed by an independent court-appointed auditor.
5. BitMart says customers will then be offered three options: a pro rata share of liquid assets, which may include fiat, USDC, PYUSD, USDT, bitcoin, ether, and Solana; a specially issued Restitution Token backed by assets the company says it may recover from the 2021 hack; or a Continuum Token traded on decentralized venues and backed by investment assets, sale of illiquid holdings, and, if financing returns and the business resumes, part of future profits.

BitMart says it will discuss the proposal with its 50 largest balance holders over the next three to four weeks, and expects to ask a court to approve the plan in December or January. The exchange, which has been operating for nine years, said it would stop trading on 26 July, halted trading on 26 August, and had planned a final shutdown date of 31 January 2027. After the wind-down announcement, customers complained about withdrawal delays, while the platform rejected claims that it was insolvent.