Multiple users are reporting frozen withdrawals on cryptocurrency exchange AscendEX, and prominent blockchain investigator ZachXBT says the warning signs point to potential liquidity trouble.
It started with a user named Lorenzo Navarro Rodriguez, who posted on X that a 4,196 USDT withdrawal had been stuck in an initiating state since June 10. Customer support, they said, went silent. At least five other users chimed in over the following days with similar stories.
Then ZachXBT weighed in. In a Telegram post, he said the exchange was missing large-cap reserves for major tokens: Ether, USDT, and Solana. The implication is that AscendEX might not have enough liquid assets to cover customer withdrawal requests.
Blockchain data from Arkham paints a stark picture. AscendEX-tagged wallets held roughly $20.2 million in crypto as of Friday, but the holdings were dominated by small-cap assets. The single largest holding was $10 million in UNITE tokens, followed by $5.24 million worth of REUR, $2.9 million in ASD, and just $600,000 in stablecoins. The kind of reserves that don’t inspire confidence when customers want their money back.
AscendEX did not respond to requests for comment before publication. That never helps.
None of this guarantees the exchange is insolvent. But in an industry still nursing scars from the FTX collapse, where customer withdrawals exposed a multi-billion-dollar hole, delayed withdrawals plus unanswered support plus thin reserves is a combination that makes people understandably nervous. If you have funds on AscendEX, you are watching this one closely.
