BitMart is a global, centralized cryptocurrency exchange operated by bachi.tech in the Cayman Islands, offering spot and derivatives trading for over 1,700 digital assets to users in 180+ countries. The exchange is designed for both beginners and advanced, institutional traders, offering a user-friendly interface alongside professional trading tools. It provides high-leverage futures trading (up to 100x), staking, savings, a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace and a non-fungible token (NFT) platform. The BitMart cryptocurrency exchange platform is designed to provide advanced, automated and artificial intelligence (AI) trading tools to users, including an AI Hub which is a specialized section within BitMart that integrates AI tools to assist users with trading, analysis and market insights. It serves as a centralized location for AI-driven, interactive blockchain tools designed to help both beginner and professional traders make data-driven decisions in a volatile market. BitMart is also known for its extensive list of altcoins and fast listings of new tokens.[1]
BitMart was founded in 2017 by Sheldon Xia. It is operated by bachi.tech[2] and based in the Cayman Islands. The BitMart Token (BMX) was officially launched during March 2018 alongside the BitMart exchange platform. It is an ERC-20 utility token operating on the Ethereum blockchain, initially designed to offer trading fee discounts and in some cases was previously referred to as BMC in late 2017, early 2018 before rebranding to BMX.[3]
BitMart fell victim to the Saitama token market manipulation scheme prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice during 2024. According to charging documents released by the department in October 2024, BitMart was one of the centralized exchanges where Saitama leadership and hired market makers, such as Gotbit and ZM Quant, executed "wash trades" to artificially inflate the token's trading volume and price.[4]
Security Breach
During December 2021, BitMart experienced a security breach. Approximately US$196,000,000 worth of cryptocurrency was stolen in the attack,[5][6] which it claimed was a small percentage of its total assets.[7] During the investigation, BitMart halted withdrawals from all customers,[8] but did not stop trading of affected tokens.[9] Hackers used a compromised private key to break the encryption on two hot wallets associated the exchange.[10][8] Their security firm said the hackers used the decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch[11] to swap the stolen tokens for Ethereum, then deposited the ether into the privacy mixer Tornado Cash to obscure their identities.[12]:120 Following the incident, BitMart pledged to reimburse all affected users,[5] claiming that only the two compromised wallets were impacted and customer funds were "safe and unharmed."[13] After five weeks passed, users reported that their funds had not been returned. CNBC participated in a live Twitter Spaces with 700 users about the incident, many of them facing financial ruin. The outlet reached out to Xia for an update, but said that the email bounced back. Users voiced concerns that during the same month the exchange closed Series B round for US$13,700,000 with a valuation of US$300,000,000, indicating that the exchange did not have the liquid capital to fund withdrawals.[9] The Los Angeles Times reported that the deposits were covered by insurance.[14]
In 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opened an investigation into BitMart over the loss of customer funds. It was the first cryptocurrency case opened by the agency.[2] The case was dismissed during 2023.[15]
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