Bitmart

BitMart was founded in 2017 by Sheldon Xia and specializes in providing tools for buying, selling, and trading to individuals and institutions.^[1] It is operated by bachi.tech^[2] and based in the Cayman Islands. Public operations began in 2018 when Bitmart was first registered with FinCEN^[3] and introduced credit/debit card deposit services through third-party partners, enabling fiat deposits.^[4]

In August 2019, Bitmart raised funds in a Pre-A round led by Fenbushi Capital, a blockchain-focused venture capital firm.^[5][6] Bitmart also collaborated with Columbia University to conduct a security token workshop.^[7]

Bitmart completed a Series B fundraising round led by the New York-based private equity firm Alexander Capital Ventures in November 2021.^[8]

In 2024, Bitmart launched a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace.^[9]

In September 2025, BitMart introduced the BitMart Card, a Visa-branded debit card that allows users to spend cryptocurrency at merchants and earn tiered cashback.^[10]

On January 21, 2026, UNICEF Luxembourg announced a partnership with digital asset platform BitMart to support the Passport to Earning initiative, providing financial literacy and digital skills training to youth aged 15 to 24 in Brazil.^[11]

Security breach

In December 2021, BitMart experienced a security breach. Approximately US$196,000,000 worth of cryptocurrency was stolen in the attack,^[12][13] which it claimed was a small percentage of its total assets.^[14] During the investigation, BitMart halted withdrawals from all customers,^[15] but did not stop trading of affected tokens.^[16] Hackers used a compromised private key to break the encryption on two hot wallets associated the exchange.^[17][15] Their security firm said the hackers used the decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch^[18] to swap the stolen tokens for Ethereum, then deposited the ether into the privacy mixer Tornado Cash to obscure their identities.^[19]: 120 Following the incident, BitMart pledged to reimburse all affected users,^[12] claiming that only the two compromised wallets were impacted and customer funds were "safe and unharmed."^[20] 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.^[16] The Los Angeles Times reported that the deposits were covered by insurance.^[21]

In 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opened an investigation into BitMart over the loss of customer funds.^[2] The FTC case was dismissed during 2023.^[22]

BitMart offers 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.^[23]