BitMart Staff Hijack Own X Account to Yell at Boss — Deadline: Tuesday 🚨

BitMart employees have seized control of the exchange's Chinese-language X account to publicly confront founder Sheldon Xia over a withdrawal freeze, unpaid wages and the fate of locked customer funds, issuing a five-point ultimatum with an August 19, 2026 deadline before escalation to regulators and law enforcement worldwide. The open letter demands full disclosure of all corporate and personal wallets, proof of reserves, an audited repayment roadmap, immediate salary payment, and a signed resignation from Xia if those conditions are not met. Failure to comply by the deadline will trigger referrals to authorities in the United States, China, Hong Kong, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Australia, according to the statement posted from the official handle.

The confrontation follows BitMart's July 26, 2026 announcement of a phased wind-down, which immediately suspended new registrations, deposits and order placement. All spot and futures trading is scheduled to end on August 26, 2026, with full platform closure slated for January 31, 2027. The native $BMX token fell roughly 58% within 24 hours of the announcement. Users subsequently reported that withdrawal requests either remained pending or were marked completed without corresponding on-chain hashes, prompting on-chain tracker Lookonchain to note that approximately 58 wallets withdrew a combined $805,000 in the first 24 hours following the disclosure.

The staff letter accuses Xia of ignoring internal escalation attempts since July and of conducting a unilateral shutdown that left employees without pay and customers without access to balances. BitMart has not issued a public response at the time of writing, and Xia's personal social channels remained silent as of publication. The exchange, which launched in 2018, has not disclosed the total value of assets currently held or the size of its outstanding withdrawal queue, leaving the scale of the shortfall unverified until the August 19 deadline or a formal audit is produced.