CoinEx Is Shutting Down: Every Deadline, the CET Buyback, and What Waiting Costs You (2026)
CoinEx is winding down after nine years. New signups are already closed, spot trading ends September 29, 2026, and withdrawals close on December 22, 2026. CET is being bought back at its original 0.005 USDT listing price with no volume cap. The part that deserves your attention is what happens if you miss the deadline: leftover balances move into independent custody and are charged 5% of the original balance every month, with claims accepted until August 22, 2028. That is twenty months at five percent — which zeroes the balance out precisely as the claim window closes.
Disclosure: we run a comparison site for exchange fee rebates, so we have a commercial interest in where people trade next. That is exactly why the section on picking a replacement below is about method rather than a recommendation.
Jump to a Section
- What Are the Actual Deadlines?
- What Does Waiting Actually Cost?
- What Happens to CET?
- Why Is CoinEx Closing?
- What Should You Do This Week?
- How Do You Pick Where to Go Next?
What Are the Actual Deadlines?
There are three, and they are not the same date. Missing the first one does not cost you money, but missing the last one does.
| Date | What stops |
|---|---|
| Already in effect | New account registrations |
| September 29, 2026 | Spot trading ends. Also the last day of the CET buyback window. |
| December 22, 2026 | Withdrawals close. Reported as 02:00 UTC. The exchange formally shuts the same day. |
| August 22, 2028 | Last date to file a claim for funds left behind |
The September 29 date is the one people will overlook, because it sounds like a trading detail rather than a money deadline. It is not. Once spot trading stops you can no longer convert one asset into another on the platform — you can only withdraw what you are holding, in the form you are holding it. If you were planning to consolidate into a stablecoin before moving out, that has to happen before September 29.
What Does Waiting Actually Cost?
This is the number worth internalising. Balances not withdrawn by December 22 go into independent custody and are charged a monthly fee equal to 5% of the original balance. Note the wording: it is five percent of the original amount each month, not five percent of what is left.
That is a straight line down, not a curve. Here is what it does.
| Months after the deadline | Fee taken | Left from $1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 month | 5% | $950 |
| 6 months | 30% | $700 |
| 12 months | 60% | $400 |
| 20 months (Aug 2028) | 100% | $0 |
December 22, 2026 to August 22, 2028 is exactly twenty months. Twenty months at five percent of the original balance is exactly one hundred percent. The fee schedule and the claim deadline are set so that a forgotten balance reaches zero at the moment the right to claim it expires.
Whether that is deliberate design or arithmetic coincidence, the practical instruction is the same: the custody period is not a safety net you can lean on. It is a countdown. Treat December 22 as the real deadline and the twenty months as a formality.
What Happens to CET?
CoinEx is repurchasing its exchange token CET at 0.005 USDT, the original listing price, with no cap on volume. The buyback window runs from September 15 to September 29, 2026. Any CET still sitting in user accounts after that is reported to be converted automatically at the same rate.
Two things follow from that. First, if you hold CET, there is no advantage to waiting — the price is fixed, not market-determined, so holding does not get you more. Second, if the market price of CET is above 0.005 USDT anywhere, that is a market pricing something the buyback does not. Verify before acting on it, and be aware that liquidity on a delisting token is usually the first thing to go.
Why Is CoinEx Closing?
The company attributes it to a prolonged market downturn, falling trading volume, and compliance and supervisory costs it describes as no longer sustainable. Founder Haipo Yang said that “the security and compliance risks of running a crypto exchange have become increasingly difficult to contain,” and framed the decision as choosing a “clean ending” over selling the platform to another operator.
That last point is worth pausing on, because it is unusual and it works in users’ favour. An exchange sold to a new operator hands your account, your balance and your data to a party you did not choose. A wind-down with a published withdrawal window and a token buyback is the more orderly outcome, even though it is the one that ends the business.
It also lands in the same month as a major exchange breach elsewhere in the industry, which is a reminder that the risks of leaving assets on any platform are not only about theft. A platform can also simply stop.
What Should You Do This Week?
Order matters here, because one deadline is days away and the other is months away.
- Before September 29 — convert, if you need to. If your balance is in assets you do not want to hold or move, this is the last chance to trade out of them on the platform. After this date you withdraw what you have, as it is.
- Before September 29 — deal with CET. The buyback price is fixed at 0.005 USDT and the window closes with spot trading.
- Do not wait until December for the withdrawal itself. Everyone else will. Network congestion and support queues get worse as a deadline approaches, and this is the deadline with money attached to it.
- Check for balances you have forgotten. Small leftovers in secondary assets are exactly what the custody fee is designed to consume. Sweep the account, not just the main balance.
- Screenshot your balances and save the withdrawal transaction IDs. If you ever need to file a claim before August 2028, you will want records that do not depend on a login that no longer exists.
How Do You Pick Where to Go Next?
The instinct after a shutdown is to move to the biggest name available, on the theory that big things do not close. That is reasonable as far as it goes, but it is not the only thing to weigh, and this month has shown that size does not prevent incidents either.
A more useful checklist, in the order that actually affects you:
- Can you get your money out? Look at withdrawal limits, verification requirements and the fiat routes available in your country before you deposit anything.
- What does trading actually cost you there? Published maker and taker rates are the start, not the answer. Rebate programmes, volume tiers and fee discounts move the real number substantially.
- Is the platform regulated where you live? An exchange that is not registered in your jurisdiction means no local recourse if something goes wrong — a difference that only matters on the day it matters.
- Does it publish reserves, and does anyone check? Self-published attestations are worth more than nothing and less than an audit.
The point is to choose on cost and exit-ability rather than on brand recognition, because those are the two things that determine what a shutdown or a suspension does to you.
🔗 Related
- Bitget Hacked for $387 Million: When Withdrawals Reopen — the other way an exchange stops being available to you
- Comparing Futures Exchanges on Funding Rates
FAQ
Is my money gone if I miss December 22?
Not immediately. Balances move to independent custody and can be claimed until August 22, 2028, but a monthly fee of 5% of the original balance applies from the start. Over twenty months that reaches the full amount, so in practice the claim window and the erosion end together.
Can I still trade after September 29?
Spot trading ends that day. You can still withdraw what you hold until December 22, but not convert it on the platform.
What price is CET being bought back at?
0.005 USDT, the original listing price, with no volume cap, during a window running to September 29, 2026. Remaining balances are reported to convert automatically at the same rate.
Is this related to the Bitget incident?
No. They are separate events at separate companies that happened to fall in the same month. CoinEx describes a planned wind-down for commercial and compliance reasons, not a security breach.
Should I be worried about other exchanges closing?
CoinEx cited market conditions and compliance costs that are not unique to it, so it would be naive to treat this as a one-off. The practical response is not to guess which platform is next, but to keep on any exchange only what you need there.
Sources
- CoinEx — Important Notice on CoinEx’s Orderly Cessation of Operations, the company’s own announcement.
- Decrypt — Crypto exchange CoinEx is shutting down after nine years. Source of the trading and withdrawal dates, buyback terms and the Haipo Yang quotes.
- CoinCodex — CoinEx shutdown: what users need to know. Source of the custody arrangement, the 5% monthly fee and the August 22, 2028 claim date.
Compiled from public sources as of September 26, 2026. Dates and terms in a wind-down can change — confirm against CoinEx’s own announcement page before acting, and note that the exact timezone for the withdrawal cut-off is reported rather than confirmed here. This article is informational and is not financial advice.
