AscendEX
Trading stopped before the company announced a wind-down
A Singapore-based crypto exchange, launched as BitMax in 2018, offering spot and futures trading, custody, staking and token launch sales.
- Recorded announced backing
Recorded announced backing; this is separate from cash received, customer deposits and money recovered.
Funding
| Round | Date | Announced | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series B | 2021 |
Announced is what was said at the time. Cash actually received is rarely disclosed and is not assumed to match.
People
| Name | Role | Period | Now | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| George Cao | — | Not established | Oct 2026 |
Timeline
July 2018
Renamed AscendEX in March 2021.
3 November 2021
The company said it would use the money for international expansion and yield products.
11 December 2021
About $77 million in tokens was taken across Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and Polygon, according to figures reported from the security firm PeckShield.
1 July 2026
6 July 2026
How it ended
AscendEX stopped trading, deposits, staking, swaps and lending on 1 July 2026. In a notice dated 6 July it said it did not hold authorisation under the EU's MiCA framework and cited financial and operational pressures, including a counterparty's failure to complete a transaction meant to provide liquidity. It moved every withdrawal to manual review, said some withdrawals could be delayed or rejected, and gave no assurance on timing or amounts.
Corrections
Oct 2026
The headline now describes the operating sequence.
The previous headline asserted a regulatory explanation and timetable. Those were not established by the cited closure evidence; the headline now separates the trading stop from the wind-down announcement.
Still alive
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Sources
8 sources behind this page.
- 1AscendEX Announces a $50M Series B Raise Led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC (press release) · Bitcoin.com News (company press release) · Nov 2021
- 2Crypto Exchange AscendEX Halts All Operations, Offers No Guarantees on Customer Fund Withdrawals · Crowdfund Insider · Jul 2026
- 3Crypto exchange AscendEX closes $50M Series B led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC · CryptoNinjas · Nov 2021
- 4AscendEX shuts down after MiCA miss and warns some withdrawals may not be processed · CryptoSlate · Jul 2026
- 5Alameda Research, Polychain Capital Back 'CeFi DeFi' Crypto Exchange AscendEx · Decrypt · Nov 2021
- 6AscendEX, former BitMax, loses $77M in hack · Invezz · Dec 2021
- 7Latest posts of @George_AscendEX · twitterapi.io (X API), retrieved 3 October 2026
- 8X account search for "George Cao" · twitterapi.io (X API), retrieved 3 October 2026
Every figure above is clickable and opens the sources behind it. Copies were stored when each source was read, so a citation still resolves after the page it came from is gone.