Special-situations firm Echo Base has formalized an ad hoc creditors’ committee for BitMart users with locked assets, after the exchange’s management failed to respond to a $10 million pre-negotiated bankruptcy offer. The committee, announced on September 2, 2026, is intended to coordinate legal recovery for retail and institutional users affected by BitMart’s suspension of withdrawals and its announced wind-down.
Echo Base originally approached BitMart on August 6 with up to $10 million in financing to cover administrative and professional costs through a court-supervised restructuring, including debtor-in-possession financing and post-restructuring equity. On August 8, an Echo Base affiliate sent a formal demand tied to a withdrawal request that had remained unexecuted since July 24 — roughly 31 hours before BitMart publicly announced its shutdown. Echo Base says it logged 15 attempts to reach the exchange without receiving a legal or contractual explanation.
The newly formed committee has retained Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor and Ashbury Legal to evaluate recovery options, with Echo Base describing the represented user pool as “significant and growing.” The firm’s legal position is that customer assets do not become exchange property under BitMart’s own user agreement. Echo Base has also said qualifying creditors may consider forcing an involuntary insolvency case, though no decision has been made.
Echo Base CEO Roshan Dharia warned that BitMart’s timeline is not workable. “Administering a book this size takes years, and BitMart has publicly committed to a process it cannot staff past January,” he said. He added that without a court-supervised process there is no automatic stay, meaning a single claimant could stall recovery for everyone.
BitMart announced its wind-down in late July, halting new accounts, deposits and fresh orders, with spot and futures trading due to end August 26 and a full shutdown planned for January 31, 2027. Founder Sheldon Xia denied a fund exit on August 8, saying his team was still tallying assets, but provided no proof-of-reserves report. Public CoinMarketCap data cited at the time showed BitMart self-reporting only about $5.36 million in reserves — mostly in its own BMX token — against daily trading volume near $272.6 million.
BitMart’s most recent public update came on August 21, when it mentioned a potential phased resumption of some operations and promised a definitive roadmap by September 9, 2026. Echo Base said its offer remains open and that it is willing to negotiate a consensual wind-down, but warned that workable options shrink each week the proposal goes unanswered.
