Crypto World
BitMart reserve doubts raise custody concerns: Arch CTO
BitMart’s missing proof-of-reserves report and withdrawal complaints from two crypto projects have raised fresh questions about how customer assets are held during the exchange’s wind-down.
Summary
- Arch Lending’s CTO called for independently verifiable custody before platforms face withdrawal pressure.
- OpenGradient and Scandic Coin have reported inaccessible or delayed BitMart withdrawals.
- BitMart has denied misusing customer funds but has not disclosed verified reserves and liabilities.
- Trading will stop on Aug. 26, ahead of the platform’s planned closure in January 2027.
BitMart concerns expose verification problem
Arch Lending co-founder and CTO Himanshu Sahay said questions about withdrawals and exchange closures expose the difference between assurances offered by a platform and financial information that customers can independently check.
“Whenever questions arise around withdrawal processing or exchange wind-downs, it points to a structural gap across digital asset markets: the difference between platform-level statements and independent verification,” Sahay said in a statement to crypto.news.
Customers often have no real-time method for establishing whether an exchange holds their assets in segregated accounts or combines them with funds used for other operations, according to the executive. Uncertainty increases when withdrawals slow because customers must rely on the same company processing their requests for information about its financial condition.
Sahay said the crypto industry already has tools that can reduce such uncertainty, including third-party custodians, reserve attestations, and strict asset segregation. Their value depends on whether customers can use them to verify solvency claims before operational problems emerge.
“This isn’t a new issue, but a recurring one that resurfaces whenever a platform faces operational stress.”
BitMart stated in May that it was preparing a proof-of-reserves report after earlier complaints about account restrictions and withdrawal access. The exchange said it would release the report once security and risk-control matters had been addressed, but it did not provide a date.
No comprehensive report had been published as of Aug. 12. BitMart has also not released independently verified data covering both its assets and liabilities, leaving outside parties unable to establish whether the exchange holds enough liquid assets to meet all customer obligations.
Withdrawal complaints add pressure on BitMart
OpenGradient co-founder Matthew Wang alleged on Aug. 10 that his project’s market-making team could not withdraw balances held on BitMart. Wang accused the exchange of insolvency and questioned why it had encouraged token holders to lock assets shortly before announcing its closure.
“Our MM has our balances stuck on BitMart exchange that we can’t get out,” Wang said.
Wang did not disclose the amount or composition of the assets held by the market maker. His insolvency accusation has not been independently verified, and no confirmed evidence currently establishes that BitMart’s liabilities exceed its available assets.
Scandic Coin separately said that withdrawal requests covering approximately 21,898 USDT, 926,635 SNC, and another 256 USDT remained unprocessed after being submitted on July 26. The project stopped short of declaring BitMart insolvent and instead asked the exchange for verifiable evidence that it had enough liquidity to complete customer withdrawals.
The complaints were detailed in an Aug. 10 report on frozen withdrawals, which found that BitMart had not directly answered OpenGradient’s allegation at the time of publication.
BitMart maintains that withdrawals remain available. Under its procedures, requests may face checks involving customer identity, login devices, IP addresses, transaction history, destination wallets, and the source of funds.
Sanctions screening, Travel Rule requirements, and network conditions may also affect processing times, according to the company. BitMart warns that submitting a request does not mean the review has finished or that the transaction has been broadcast to a blockchain.
For customers, the absence of a transaction hash means there is no on-chain evidence showing that their assets have left the exchange. BitMart tells users to follow the status through their account history and avoid filing duplicate requests or support tickets.
Asset segregation must precede a crisis
Sahay said regulated third-party custody can reduce dependence on statements from an exchange because customer collateral remains separate from the company’s operating balance sheet.
“Maintaining collateral with qualified, regulated custodians completely separate from operating balance sheets is what ensures customers never have to rely on trust alone.”
According to Sahay, companies cannot obtain the full benefit of asset segregation by adopting it after withdrawals stall or concerns about liquidity have already surfaced. Custody arrangements need to be built into the platform’s structure from the beginning, with evidence showing where assets reside and how they are protected.
Proof of reserves can provide a snapshot of assets controlled by a platform, but such a report does not establish solvency by itself. A complete assessment also requires information about liabilities owed to customers, lenders, market makers, and other counterparties.
Reserve reports can present other limitations because they usually cover a specific point in time and may exclude certain assets or obligations. Customers also need a way to confirm that their individual balances were included in the review, while auditors must establish that the company controls the disclosed wallets.
Comparable concerns have surfaced at other centralized exchanges. In June, on-chain investigator ZachXBT said AscendEX users had reported withdrawals pending for days or weeks and questioned whether publicly identified hot wallets contained enough large-cap assets.
The resulting AscendEX liquidity concerns could not be confirmed from labeled addresses alone because an exchange may hold funds in undisclosed cold wallets or with external custodians. The episode still showed how limited wallet visibility can prevent customers from evaluating an exchange during withdrawal pressure.
Sahay expects independently verifiable third-party custody to become a basic requirement as institutional and retail participation develops. Platforms that can show where customer assets are held and how they are separated from operating funds will be able to answer such questions with evidence rather than internal assurances, he said.
BitMart will end trading on Aug. 26
BitMart began winding down its global trading platform on July 26, citing its operating conditions, the market environment, and its future strategy. The exchange stopped accepting new registrations and began suspending cryptocurrency and fiat deposits from 01:30 UTC.
Spot markets stopped taking new orders, while futures accounts entered reduce-only mode. BitMart also began discontinuing copy trading, grid trading, API trading, and other automated services.
BMX, the exchange’s platform token, fell approximately 63% during the first 24 hours following the announcement, according to the earlier BitMart shutdown report. CoinGecko data cited at the time placed BMX near $0.164 with around $6.1 million in daily trading volume.
All spot, futures, and other trading services are scheduled to end at 01:00 UTC on Aug. 26. BitMart may settle any futures positions left open at the cutoff using the relevant mark price, index price, or settlement rules.
Customers have been asked to close trading positions, cancel pending orders, and redeem eligible balances held in Earn, staking, lending, and other products. The company recommends submitting withdrawal requests before 05:00 UTC on Aug. 26.
Requests submitted after that time will enter a separate processing procedure. BitMart said affected customers would receive instructions about additional documents and withdrawal steps through official announcements or direct account notifications.
Founder Sheldon Xia denied on Aug. 8 that BitMart had disappeared, planned to avoid its obligations, or misappropriated customer assets. Xia said the core team was conducting an asset inventory, consolidating funds, and maintaining the systems required for the closure.
The founder also said BitMart was considering court involvement and third-party auditors as part of a transparent review. He did not provide a publication date or explain whether the proposed report would cover customer liabilities alongside reserve assets.
BitMart plans to cease trading-platform operations at 15:59 UTC on Jan. 31, 2027. The exchange said customers would retain account access for a specified period afterward to review historical records and submit withdrawals under the procedures then in effect.
For U.S. residents, BitMart stopped accepting new registrations in May 2022, although the company said some older accounts could remain linked to American users. A July 23 notice instructed affected customers to close positions, cancel orders, redeem balances from earning products, and withdraw their assets by 23:59 UTC on Aug. 8.
BitMart said U.S.-linked accounts could face additional restrictions after the deadline, while pending withdrawals may require identity records, proof of address, source-of-funds documents, or evidence that the customer controls the receiving wallet.
Crypto companies from including Coinbase, BitGo, Robinhood, Polygon and Pump.fun have announced workforce reductions this year, citing a variety of reasons, including shifting to AI and market forces.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management said Wednesday that it would not recommend enforcement action if Franklin Templeton’s U.S. registered funds hold shares of its onchain money market fund through an affiliated blockchain-integrated custody and… Read the full story at The Defiant
Council Speaker Julie Menin sent letters to four companies offering prediction market services to New Yorkers as part of an investigation into their marketing practices.
It’s an exciting finding, says Rimas Orentas, an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and head of immunotherapy at Miltenyi Biotec who was not involved in the study. “Solid tumors are enmeshed in your tissues,” he says. That makes it quite difficult for engineered T-cells to work. “That’s the surprising part of this paper.”
As with many engineered T-cell discoveries, this particular approach, if it reaches the clinic, is unlikely to work for every patient or every cancer. Still, with many of these approaches, says Orentas, “just a few patients benefit, but when they benefit, they really benefit. I think that’s where we’re headed with this.”
Seitz, who is now planning a clinical trial of the treatment with 18 pediatric cancer patients who all have PRAME in their tumors, just saw his recovered patient this week. Over the weekend, the boy had been part of an extreme cycling event. “Apparently, they drive uphill, and then they go nuts downhill between trees and rocks,” Seitz says. “And I was like, ‘Oh my God…please don’t crash into a tree! It’s not worth it!’ But he really loves it”—and Seitz feels honored to have helped him reclaim his life.
If you have been following the Ethereum price action for a while, you would know that the 6% monthly uptick could reverse rather quickly. Even though ETH seems to be trading inside a rising channel, an otherwise bullish pattern, a few alarming signs are emerging.
On-chain, capital keeps flowing in while trading activity and big holders step back. That split leaves ETH structurally supported but tactically fragile beneath a stubborn $1,915 ceiling.
Capital Piles in as Trading Dries Up
Money is the key factor here. Ethereum’s monthly DEX volume fell about 42% from April to July, according to Dune Analytics, yet TVL, the capital locked in DeFi apps, rose about 7.8% to near $42 billion, with staking at a record 33.98% of supply.
This is not defeat. Trading cooled everywhere, with Solana down about 79% from its peak and BNB Chain now leading volume. This means money is settling into yield rather than chasing trades.
That fundamentally aligned thesis looks bullish, but it hides a catch. The demand that actually drives price is thinning.
Whales Cash Out as the Channel Weakens
That thinning demand is now showing up in the biggest wallets. ETH has climbed an ascending channel since July 8, which reads as bullish on its own.
However, buying volume has faded since July 14, and selling pressure has surged since August 6, leaving the trend fragile. Then the whales blinked.
Want more token insights like this? Sign up for Editor Harsh Notariya’s Daily Crypto Newsletter here.
Holdings excluding exchanges fell from 125.44 million ETH on August 10 to 123.86 million, roughly $3 billion sold into the very strength that looked bullish.
When large holders trim and volume dries up, rallies lose their fuel, which is why the price keeps stalling at one exact level.
Why $1,915 Decides the Ethereum Price
All of that pressure meets at $1,915. The Ethereum price has been rejected there seven times since July 31, making it the wall that defines the trend. A daily close above it opens at $1,978, then the top of the channel, the path our ETH forecast tracks.
Losing the immediate floor instead can change the equation rather quickly. A close below $1,875 would turn the structure from bullish to neutral and expose $1,843, then $1,811. So until fresh demand returns to crack $1,915, capital supports the Ethereum price without lifting it, and the whales are betting it stays that way.
Analyst’s View: The dropping DEX footprint doesn’t look like an Ethereum problem. It can be termed a market-wide reset. The real worry sits with the whales. And a sustained rejection at $1,915 might be the reason for their apathy. A reclaim of $1,915 can bring back big-holder optimism.
The post Why is Ethereum Price Stuck Below $2,000? appeared first on BeInCrypto.
XRP’s price has remained under pressure, alongside the choppy price action seen across other major crypto assets. It has struggled throughout the summer, shedding almost 30% since mid-May.
But the slump hasn’t stopped whale wallets from growing.
Biggest Wallets Are Quietly Growing
According to Santiment’s latest analysis, the number of wallets holding at least 1 million XRP has increased by 32 over the past three months, while the market cap has declined by 29%. At the same time, Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, has grown into a meaningful institutional stablecoin. The firm’s payments, custody, and tokenization rails also continue to keep the XRP Ledger tied to settlement use cases.
Santiment said that the rising million-XRP wallets alongside a falling market cap indicate stronger holders are absorbing panic, and added,
“Patience is replacing simple price-related hype, and future volatility becomes more interesting for bulls.”
Zooming out, XRP is now in extremely oversold territory. According to Ali Martinez, fresh buy signals are now appearing. Earlier this week, the analyst reported that large investors bought more than 380 million units in seven days, worth nearly $400 million at the time.
Such accumulation could reduce the supply available on the market and support prices if demand holds steady or rises. It could also attract smaller investors. The monthly TD Sequential also flashed a buy signal. Similar setups had previously preceded major price increases.
Meanwhile, market watcher CR87 said XRP is at a “critical level.” The price risks falling toward the $0.50-$0.60 range if $1.03 fails. For bulls, on the other hand, reclaiming $1.47 would be the first sign of strength. Along similar lines, X user Diana also predicted more downside if the token breaks below the $1 level. The downside target in that scenario is $0.86. However, a strong reaction around $1, followed by a move back above $1.036, could weaken the bearish outlook.
A Sharp ETF Slowdown
On the institutional front, US-based spot XRP ETFs attracted a total of $1.17 billion between November and December 2025. However, that momentum has weakened in recent months. The products drew just $15.59 million in January. In the following month, the figure nearly quadrupled to $58.09 million. March then saw the first monthly outflow of $31.16 million.
Performance remained mixed from April to July 2026. The funds brought in $81.6 million in April and $132 million in May after the CLARITY Act cleared the Senate Banking Committee. That slowed to $59.46 million in June and $27.29 million in July. So far in August, they have attracted just $1 million.
The post Ripple’s (XRP) Summer Slump Isn’t Stopping Large Wallets From Growing appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Crypto World
Morgan Stanley’s infrastructure partner Zerohash rebuffed in pitch to be U.S. trust bank
Unlike denials (as received by Wise and Bunq) a return doesn’t come with a detailed explanation. The company didn’t publicly disclose the development when it happened, as it had with the submission of its application. And Zerohash hadn’t voluntarily withdrawn the filing, as was its option.
A spokesperson for the OCC didn’t immediately respond to questions about the application, and spokespeople for Morgan Stanley declined to comment.
Just a month before returning Zerohash’s effort, the regulator issued an explanation for how it makes such decisions, including its new approach to returning applications without registering a decision. The OCC will return a filing, the agency said, if it doesn’t contain necessary information on the company’s finances or officers. Or, it noted, “the OCC may return a filing as materially deficient if, after attempting to have the filer furnish all required information for the OCC to assess the statutory or regulatory criteria through an additional information request, the responses do not sufficiently respond to the requests.”
When the Independent Community Bankers of America filed an objection to the application in April, the community-bank group’s letter noted: “In less than twelve months the OCC has conditionally approved or received applications from Circle Internet Group, Ripple, Paxos Trust, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, Crypto.com, Payoneer (PAYO), and now Zerohash. This pace — eleven filings or approvals in under one hundred days in some windows — precludes deliberate, transparent policymaking.”
Solana (SOL) came within five percentage points of a full network halt on Wednesday morning. One routing glitch at one hosting company knocked 28.83% of all staked SOL offline in minutes.
Almost nobody noticed. Staking platform Marinade Finance reconstructed the incident and found the network got 86% of the way to the 33.34% line where Solana stops finalizing transactions.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
How One Bad Route Nearly Halted the Solana Network
The fault began at Teraswitch, a hosting provider popular with Solana validators. A broken route left its Miami site, then spread through an internal relay in Amsterdam. Twelve sites from London to Tokyo lost their connection. North America never felt it.
“Solana got 86% of the way to a halt this morning and it barely registered anywhere,” Marinade Finance indicated.
Teraswitch found the bug in about 10 minutes. Full recovery took 33. At the peak, roughly 20 million SOL of online stake stood between the network and a freeze.
Around 90 validators went dark. Their combined lost rewards came to 333 SOL, about $25,600 at current prices. Validator bonds will cover that at the end of the epoch.
Solana’s Own Safety Cap Is Already Broken
An autonomous system number (ASN) is the block of internet addresses one network operator controls. One ASN, AS20326, hosts 27.34% of everything staked on Solana. During the fault, 94% of that stake went offline at once.
The Solana Foundation Delegation Program (SFDP), which steers foundation stake to validators, caps any single ASN at 25%. That cap exists for exactly this failure. It is already broken.
Another 14 million SOL dropped in the same minutes on unrelated providers. Marinade could not explain the overlap. Provider labels clearly miss some shared points of failure.
Backup systems failed the test too. Of 74 validators Marinade measured, only three switched to a second site. The rest sat offline until the internet healed. Helius, Solana’s second-largest validator, stayed down all 33 minutes.
Marinade admitted its own numbers look similar, with four ASNs holding two-thirds of the stake it allocates. It now plans tighter caps per ASN and data center, and will publish which validators run automatic failover.
A Near Miss With a Long History
SOL trades near $76.46, up 0.6% on the day. The market shrugged. No user funds were ever at risk, and bonds cover the lost rewards. The worry is structural, not immediate.
Solana has seen this movie before. In November 2022, German host Hetzner kicked 1,000 validators offline and pushed delinquent stake past 20%. Wednesday’s fault went further.
The chain’s last full network halt, in February 2024, ended a 351-day uptime streak and took about five hours to fix. No bond covers that outcome. A halt freezes every SOL holder at once.
The timing stings. Validators are preparing the Alpenglow finality upgrade, due by October, which promises faster confirmations. Speed means little if one provider’s routing table can stall the whole chain.
The open question is whether stake spreads out before the next bad route finds it.
The post Solana Network Nearly Stopped Working Today. Should SOL Investors Worry? appeared first on BeInCrypto.
The deal would add NEOS’ $30 billion ETF business, including Bitcoin- and Ether-linked income funds, to Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
BitGo Chief Financial Officer Edward Reginelli will resign effective Sept. 15, the digital-asset infrastructure company disclosed on Aug. 12. In the same announcement, BitGo reported a $19.0 million second-quarter net loss, reversing a $38.3 million profit a year earlier even as revenue climbed… Read the full story at The Defiant
Bitwise cuts 14% of staff while still expecting growth
Chelsea Freeman Called 911 in Panic Before Hospital Stay
A rare treat above Bolton as partial solar eclipse wows crowds
-
Fashion5 days agoWeekend Open Thread: Mattifying Sunscreen
-
Fashion5 days agoFrugal Friday’s Workwear Report: Cap-Sleeve Pointelle Crewneck Sweater
-
News Videos5 days agoCan Astrology Help Find Gold and Silver Trends? A Financial Astrology Guide
-
Sports7 days agoJordan Coyle & Cordiamo take Laya Arena Stakes at RDS
-
Business7 days agoUS stocks: Dow closes at record on Mideast optimism; SpaceX, AMD drag Nasdaq
-
Politics7 days agoReform UK And Greens Sink To Lowest Favourability Ratings To Date
-
Tech5 days agoRinn Pharma & Biopharma to join NordicPharmaTrain network
-
Business4 days agoHow to Start a Cleaning Business: A Step-by-Step Guide
-
Business4 days agoDatadog: Best Of Breed For Multiple Reasons
-
Business4 days agoBDC Weekly Review: Private BDC Q2 Numbers Are Strong
-
NewsBeat24 hours agoCommunication cards help banking customers access services or report scams
-
Sports7 days ago
Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained: Is Peter Parker alive?
-
Tech6 days agoPrice Hikes May Be Coming for PC Motherboards Next
-
Business6 days agoBrightwater secures funding for WA-first dementia projects
-
Crypto World7 days agoGalaxy Digital Stock Slides 14% as Crypto Prices Hit Earnings
-
Politics7 days agoThe Not-So Talented Mr Arday
-
Business2 days agoOil Price Today (August 11): Crude oil rises to $88 after Trump’s compensation demand dents Hormuz opening. Here’s why
-
Tech7 days agoHow to Use Your Phone as a Webcam on PC and Mac (2026)
-
Business7 days agoSpaceX Shares Plunge 13.6% After First Public Earnings as AI Capex Surge and Lockup Spark Selloff
-
Fashion5 days agoWeekly News Update, 8.6.26 – Corporette.com
You must be logged in to post a comment Login