11th July 2026
tl;dr
An exchange unknown to me is closing with likely losses of investors’ assets. The UK surprises me again, crypto-wise.
Market Snap
Market Wrap
Four out of the last six trading days have seen inflows into the spot BTC ETFs. With the fear-and-greed index firmly set to “fear”, are we seeing a transfer from retail into the institutions? If so, the foundations for a strong recovery are being built.
Curious Cryptos’ Meme Corner
And there endeth the lesson.
h/t The Milk Road
Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – AscendEX.com
AscendEX.com is – or rather, was – a centralised cryptocurrency exchange.
Following its failure to gain a licence to operate in the EU under MiCA, it announced that it would cease operations from 1st July. Account access has been limited to removing assets only, whilst automated withdrawals have been suspended. All requests will be manually reviewed and manually processed, which is a big red flag to me:
“As of July 6, 2026, all withdrawal requests are subject to manual review before processing, and automated withdrawals are paused. We believe this is the most responsible step to handle requests in an orderly and consistent way and to treat account holders fairly … Withdrawals may therefore be delayed, may require additional information, or may not be processed while the review continues. We are not in a position to give assurances about timing or amounts today. No account holder or group of account holders is being given priority outside the documented review process."
https://ascendex.com/en/announcement
Online crypto sleuth ZachXBT, whose work is always in support of those who may suffer from foul play, has raised concerns about the liquidity and assets of AscendEX.com:
“Community alert: I have observed multiple reports that the centralized exchange AscendEX (formerly Bitmax) is delaying user withdrawals for days / weeks or not processing withdrawals.
I reviewed known hot wallets on Arkham/TRM and its reserves appear to lack large cap tokens such as ETH, USDT, USDT, SOL, etc indicating they likely are facing liquidity issues.”
https://t.me/investigations/346
If you have assets held at AscendEX.com you must move quickly to put in a withdrawal request, but also steel yourself for the material risk that you may never see those assets again.
…
Personally, I had never heard of this exchange. I can only assume its operations were small.
I must ask again: why would anyone use any centralised cryptocurrency exchange apart from Coinbase, Binance, and KuCoin? It makes no sense to me at all.
Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – The UK
Following the recent surprising and very welcome embrace of cryptos and stablecoins (https://www.curiouscryptos.com/t/) by the UK regulator, Coinbase has announced that it has obtained a MiFID licence in the UK:
https://www.coinbase.com/en-gb/blog/coinbase-obtains-mifid-license-in-the-united-kingdom
This is one step closer towards Coinbase’s ambition of being an “everything” app. UK users, both retail and institutional, will be able to trade derivatives in cryptos, equities, and commodities. Retail users will also now have access to single stocks, with a roadmap of adding tokenised real-world assets, which is very exciting.
The press release echoes a sentiment recently expressed by the CCC:
“Credit where it's due. The UK Government and the FCA are building a forward-thinking, pro-growth framework for digital finance. Clear, robust guardrails are what give mainstream institutions and everyday users the confidence to participate. This license is proof that high regulatory standards and innovation are not in tension. They reinforce each other.
We chose to deepen our commitment to the UK because the UK made itself worth committing to.”
My default position towards the UK has now shifted dramatically.