Sheldon Xia (BitMart Founder)
Summary
Sheldon Xia is the founder of BitMart, a cryptocurrency exchange he established in 2017 that served over 13 million users across 180 countries before announcing a wind-down on July 26, 2026. Since that announcement, Xia has become the primary target of accountability demands from users and employees who allege frozen withdrawals and unpaid salaries, while Xia has publicly dismissed calls for a third-party audit and wallet disclosure as fabricated rumors. As of August 20, 2026, Xia has released no proof-of-reserves, no repayment plan, and no independent accounting of user funds, while on-chain data tracked by Arkham Intelligence shows a significant decline in wallet balances attributable to exchange-linked addresses.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 10 linked investigations- + 2 more
Timeline(14 events)
2013-01-01
Sheldon Xia involved in launch of DSCoin and operation of dscoin.org exchange, among early Chinese crypto market participants.
BitMart / WuBlockchain Medium2017-01-01
Sheldon Xia founds BitMart after completing MS in Computer Science at Stevens Institute of Technology.
Crunchbase / GlobeNewswire2021-12-04
BitMart suffers hot-wallet security breach; hackers steal approximately $150–$196 million in ETH and BSC assets. Sheldon Xia pledges full user compensation from company funds.
Bloomberg2025-04-23
Sheldon Xia transitions from CEO to Group President; Nenter Chow appointed Global CEO.
GlobeNewswire2026-05-01
BitMart publicly commits to publishing a proof-of-reserves report. Report is never delivered.
TFTC / NullTX2026-07-06
Arkham Intelligence tracks exchange-linked BitMart wallets at approximately $102 million.
CoinTelegraph2026-07-24
Global CEO Nenter Chow informed his employment is being terminated; offboarding begins. He states he had no role in management from this point forward.
Nenter Chow on X / The Block2026-07-26
BitMart announces orderly wind-down of trading platform. New accounts, deposits, and orders halted immediately. Final trading day set for August 26, full platform cessation by January 31, 2027. BMX token drops approximately 58–81.5% in following days. User withdrawal complaints begin immediately.
CoinDesk2026-08-08
Sheldon Xia states BitMart has 'not run away' and 'will not run away,' attributing withdrawal delays to internal asset consolidation. No reserve figures or timeline provided. US users with older accounts told to withdraw by this date.
Crypto Times / Crypto News2026-08-10
OpenGradient co-founder Matthew Wang publicly alleges BitMart is 'functionally insolvent,' stating his firm cannot withdraw market-making capital from the platform.
Crypto Times2026-08-17
Five-point ultimatum published via BitMart's Chinese-language X account (@BitMart_zh), demanding Sheldon Xia and Yi Li disclose wallets, assets, liabilities, reserves, and provide a repayment plan by August 19, or face submission of evidence to regulators and law enforcement worldwide.
Crypto Times / CoinTelegraph2026-08-17
Sheldon Xia publicly dismisses the ultimatum as 'fabricated rumors,' claims the Chinese X account was hacked, and threatens police action and legal letters to X. Makes no disclosure of reserves, wallets, or repayment plan.
CoinTelegraph / TFTC2026-08-17
On-chain investigator ZachXBT challenges Xia publicly: 'If you actually have the liquidity, then simply return the funds to everyone. Your actions have caused real people to lose access to their funds with little transparency provided.'
NullTX2026-08-19
Deadline set by employees and users passes. Arkham-tracked wallets show approximately $36.5 million — down from $102 million on July 6 and $71 million at announcement. No response from Xia meeting the demands is reported.
CoinTelegraph / AMBCryptoDecision Log
- #1publish⛓ pending8/20/2026, 12:10:25 PMhash: 9J1BJqnREYxvbw6PP3bn22Zsttg4NrRxCBFp3ov1vko
19 of 24 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 8/20/2026, 12:10:16 PM
last updated: 8/20/2026, 8:08:34 PM
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