Back
AscendEX faces withdrawal delay reports as hot wallets appear short of major tokens

AscendEX faces withdrawal delay reports as hot wallets appear short of major tokens

Users have reported pending or incomplete withdrawals with no transaction hash, while ZachXBT said wallets tracked on Arkham and TRM appeared light on liquid large-cap assets.

ETH
USDT
SOL

Fact Check
The claim accurately summarizes ZachXBT's own primary source. The 'Investigations by ZachXBT' Telegram channel (t.me/s/investigations/346) explicitly states there are multiple reports of delayed/unprocessed AscendEX withdrawals and that reserves lack large caps (ETH, USDT, SOL), citing the Arkham entity page and listing specific hot wallet addresses across EVM, Tron and Solana. PANews and Odaily independently corroborate the same details, including the use of Arkham and TRM for analysis and the shortage of ETH, USDT, USDC and SOL. The claim is well supported as a faithful report of ZachXBT's allegation. Note: the underlying allegation of AscendEX insolvency itself is ZachXBT's analysis, not a confirmed fact, but the claim only asserts that ZachXBT made these statements, which is verified.
    Reference: 123
Summary

AscendEX is facing mounting complaints over delayed or incomplete withdrawals, with users reporting requests stuck in an initiating or pending state and, in some cases, no blockchain transaction hash being generated after funds left their available balances. ZachXBT said on June 26 that known AscendEX hot wallets visible on Arkham and TRM appeared to lack major liquid tokens such as ETH, USDT and SOL, which he said likely points to liquidity issues, though not necessarily insolvency because exchanges often keep most customer assets in unlabeled cold storage. A June 22 complaint from X user @KenanDuygun said USDT proceeds from a token sale had been held for more than three and a half days without a transaction ID, while a separate forum post cited a roughly 10-day delay for a PAXG withdrawal. AscendEX’s help center says users should receive a transaction ID within two hours of a withdrawal request and should contact support if none appears. The Singapore-headquartered exchange, formerly BitMax, was launched in 2018 by co-founders George Jing Cao and Ariel Ling, lists more than 250 digital assets and offers spot, margin and futures trading, according to its CoinMarketCap profile. It suffered a $78 million hot-wallet hack in December 2021 across Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Polygon that was later attributed to the Lazarus Group, and in May 2026 halted trading in two stablecoins after what it called irregular token minting activity.

Terms & Concepts
  • hot wallets: Online crypto wallets used for day-to-day transfers and exchange operations.
  • cold storage: Offline custody of digital assets, typically used by exchanges to hold reserves more securely.
  • transaction hash: A unique blockchain identifier that lets users verify a transfer was broadcast on-chain.