On-chain investigator ZachXBT has called on AscendEX users with frozen funds to file official complaints with law enforcement and financial regulators in their respective countries.
The request came after reports that the exchange has halted withdrawals for days or weeks, while new deposits remain open. “If you have funds stuck I encourage you to file a report with law enforcement and regulators in your country,” ZachXBT wrote in a Telegram update, adding that the platform had not posted on X for nine days since his earlier alert.
Earlier liquidity red flags were raised when ZachXBT examined publicly labeled AscendEX hot wallets on Arkham and TRM. The wallets appeared to lack major liquid assets such as ETH, USDT, USDC, and SOL. The exchange has not confirmed any shortfall, and reserves may include cold storage or unlabeled addresses, but the absence of a clear statement has intensified user anxiety.
ZachXBT also highlighted a case involving a large victim who allegedly received no response from AscendEX co-founder George Jing Cao. In a June 26 reply to the exchange’s promotion of a TokenNusa listing, he demanded answers to two questions: why users report delayed or incomplete withdrawals, and why the hot wallets show negligible liquid assets. He explicitly warned: “No one should deposit funds to this CEX.”
The situation echoes a broader trend of withdrawal-related trust crises. Earlier in June, ZachXBT flagged JuCoin over similar delays, which the exchange blamed on upgrades and restructuring. AscendEX, originally launched as BitMax in 2018, suffered a $78 million hack in December 2021 linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The current silence from the platform leaves users without transaction IDs or timelines, underscoring why reliable withdrawal processing remains a cornerstone of centralized exchange credibility.
