AscendEX users report frozen withdrawals as on-chain investigator flags empty hot wallets

Cryptocurrency exchange AscendEX is currently under pressure after multiple users reported stuck withdrawals.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has also stated that the platform’s known hot wallets hold few liquid assets, raising questions about the Singapore-headquartered exchange capability to meet redemption demands.

Are AscendEX users suffering continuous delays in withdrawals?

ZachXBT published his findings on June 26 after reviewing wallet addresses tied to AscendEX using analytics platforms Arkham and TRM.

He wrote, “I reviewed known hot wallets on Arkham/TRM and its reserves appear to lack large cap tokens such as ETH, USDT, USDT, SOL, etc indicating they likely are facing liquidity issues.”

ZachXBT went on to question the exchange on X, asking the team to answer questions for the community.

He asked why users were reporting delayed or incomplete withdrawals and why the exchange’s hot wallets currently do not have any liquid assets. ZachXBT added that no one should deposit funds to the platform.

Before ZachXBT’s post, users had been making complaints for several days. One of such complaints occurred on June 22, when an X account with the handle @KenanDuygun, which identifies as a JurisProtocol trader, stated that AscendEX had held USDT proceeds from a token sale for more than three and a half days with no transaction ID, calling the exchange “a trap” and referencing a support ticket that had gone unresolved.

Multiple customers have also reported that withdrawals have been stuck in an “initiating” or pending state for extended periods.

In those cases, the funds disappeared from available balances, but no blockchain transaction hash was ever generated, leaving the customers with no way to verify if their assets had moved on-chain.

A separate forum complaint stated that a PAXG withdrawal was delayed roughly 10 days.

Hot wallet data does not prove insolvency

Low balances in publicly labeled hot wallets do not necessarily prove that an exchange is insolvent. Most platforms store the bulk of customer funds in cold storage, and those wallets are usually unlabeled and difficult to trace through block explorers.

ZachXBT only mentioned that AscendEX is likely facing liquidity issues, which is not an outright declaration of insolvency.

AscendEX’s own help center documentation states that users should receive a transaction ID within two hours of requesting a withdrawal and that support should be contacted if no hash appears after that window.

So far, the exchange has not issued a public response to the allegations as of June 26.

Has AscendEX suffered any security incidents in the past?

AscendEX, formerly branded as BitMax, launched in 2018 under co-founders George Jing Cao and Ariel Ling. The exchange lists more than 250 digital assets and offers spot, margin and futures trading, according to its CoinMarketCap profile.

The platform suffered a $78 million hot-wallet hack in December 2021 across Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon, an attack later attributed to the Lazarus Group. In May 2026, AscendEX separately halted trading on two stablecoins after what it called irregular token minting activity.

ZachXBT has flagged similar patterns at other smaller exchanges this year.

However, not everyone is sympathetic to the customers facing delayed withdrawals, as traders with frozen funds are now being targeted by fraudulent “recovery” services demanding upfront payments, a common secondary scam that follows exchange disruptions. Users affected by withdrawal delays have been warned to avoid any third party claiming to retrieve stuck funds.

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