AscendEx announced the cessation of its operations effective July 1, 2026, citing the lack of an EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) licence, “as well as broader regulatory, financial and operational considerations affecting the platform” according to the official announcement. Toward the end of the letter, the exchange revealed it “relied on an agreed strategic transaction… and the counterparty did not perform.”

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The news followed warnings from blockchain investigator ZachXBT, who on June 26 noted that the exchange’s “reserves appear to lack large cap tokens such as ETH, USDT, USDT, SOL, etc indicating they likely are facing liquidity issues” in a Telegram message. On-chain data from Arkham Intelligence shows AscendEx-labelled addresses holding about $13.5 million in crypto, with the vast majority consisting of Unbound Science’s UNITE token and the exchange’s own ASD.

The exchange’s balance history reveals a sudden $240 million drop on June 20, less than two months after a liquidity injection of a similar scale. Since June 20, reserves have been volatile until the cessation on July 1.

On July 2, ZachXBT warned that withdrawals were “still not being processed while deposits are being accepted” and urged affected users to contact local authorities. AscendEx’s announcement states that “automated withdrawals are paused” and from July 6 onward all withdrawals face manual review based on checks including KYC, AML/CFT, sanctions, fraud prevention, and asset reconciliation. The exchange warns that withdrawals may face delays, requests for additional information, or may not be processed at all.

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