OpenGradient co-founder Matthew Wang said his market maker has funds stuck on BitMart and alleged the exchange was insolvent, escalating scrutiny of the platform's wind-down. Messages tied to the dispute show BitMart promoted a locked savings campaign in July that offered token holders a six-month lockup at about 15% APY, first asking whether the project could provide a subsidy budget in tokens or stablecoins before later saying no subsidy was required and requesting joint marketing support. Wang said the campaign came about a week before BitMart began shutting down related services and described it as a bid for liquidity, but that claim has not been independently verified and there is no confirmed evidence the exchange could not meet withdrawals when the promotion ran. BitMart began a phased shutdown on July 26, halted new registrations, deposits and new spot orders, shifted futures accounts to reduce-only mode, and asked users to submit withdrawal requests before 05:00 UTC on Aug. 26, ahead of trading services ending at 01:00 UTC that day and platform operations terminating on Jan. 31, 2027. Other complaints, including from Scandic Coin over unprocessed withdrawals involving about 21,898 USDT, 926,635 SNC and another 256 USDT, have added to concerns. Founder Sheldon Xia said on Aug. 8 that BitMart had not "run away," denied misappropriating customer assets, and said the team was inventorying and consolidating assets while considering court and third-party audit involvement; BMX fell as much as 70% after the shutdown announcement and was trading at about $0.05706 at 08:27 UTC, down 1.9% over 24 hours.