The cryptocurrency exchange AscendEX has ceased operations, citing regulatory pressure and financial difficulties. At the same time, the DeFi tracker Zapper announced its shutdown on social media.
Collapse of AscendEX
According to a notice, the platform halted operations on July 1. The exchange's management explained that the decision was prompted by the implementation of the MiCA regulation in the European Union, for which the platform lacks authorization.
Other reasons included "financial and operational issues." The company acknowledged a liquidity shortfall that arose after a strategic deal fell through—an unnamed counterparty failed to meet its obligations.
AscendEX warned that users are unlikely to be able to withdraw their funds in full:
“We are assessing the company's financial situation and considering available options for account holders. Should an official bankruptcy procedure commence, the distribution of remaining assets will occur within that framework.”
As of this writing, automatic withdrawals have been disabled, and all requests are undergoing manual review. The administration emphasized that it cannot guarantee either the timing or the amounts of any payouts.
Back in June, on-chain investigator ZachXBT pointed out the exchange's problems. An analysis of hot wallets revealed nearly empty reserves in ETH, USDT, USDC, and SOL. The analyst recommended that affected users contact law enforcement immediately.
AscendEX (formerly BitMax) was founded in 2018. In 2021, the platform suffered a hack that resulted in a loss of over $77 million.
Closure of Zapper
Co-founder of the DeFi dashboard Zapper, Seb O'De, also announced the service's shutdown. The website, mobile applications, and API will be completely disabled on August 3.
The project was launched in 2019 and started as a portfolio tracker. Over time, Zapper added DEX aggregation, NFT support, and other Web3 tools, including the Farcaster client. At its peak, the service had up to 2 million active users per month, with transaction volumes exceeding $13 billion.
Despite previously raising $15 million in funding, O'De stated that an "orderly wind-down" is the best scenario under current market conditions.
O'De acknowledged that the project did not fulfill its mission to make DeFi more accessible as the team initially intended, but added that the service significantly simplified the use of on-chain economics for a considerable number of people.
It is worth noting that in June, the Loopring protocol team announced the closure of its decentralized exchange and automated market maker.