AscendEX halts operations, freezes withdrawals amid EU MiCA regulation

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The post AscendEX Halts Operations, Freezes Automated Withdrawals appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Crypto exchange AscendEX ceased operations effective July 1, 2026, and moved all withdrawal requests to manual review starting July 6, according to a notice posted on its website addressed to retail account holders. Crypto exchange AscendEX ceased operations effective July 1, 2026, and moved all withdrawal requests to manual review starting July 6, according to a notice posted on its website addressed to retail account holders. The exchange cited the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which took full effect July 1 and under which AscendEX holds no authorization, alongside broader “regulatory, financial and operational considerations,” the notice said. Customers can no longer open accounts, deposit, trade, swap, stake or lend on the platform; access is now limited to offboarding tasks such as withdrawal requests, KYC updates and transaction-history exports. Wi

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Crypto exchange AscendEX ceased operations effective July 1, 2026, and moved all withdrawal requests to manual review starting July 6, according to a notice posted on its website addressed to retail account holders.

The post AscenDex shutdown: Uncertainty over withdrawals as hot wallets lack funds appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Crypto exchange AscendEx has announced the cessation of its operations “with effect from 1 July 2026.” In a letter dated July 6, it cited a lack of an EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) licence, “as well as broader regulatory, financial and operational considerations affecting the platform.” However, towards the end of the letter, AscendEx reveals that it “relied on an agreed strategic transaction… and the counterparty did not perform.” The news comes almost two weeks after pseudonymous blockchain investigator ZachXBT voiced concerns over disruption to user withdrawals. In a June 26 message to his Telegram channel, he noted that the exchange’s “reserves appear to lack large cap tokens such as ETH, USDT, USDT, SOL, etc indicating they likely are facing liquidity issues.” Read more: SecondFi is shutting down after Cardano wallet exploit AscendEx-labelled addr

The post AscendEX Exchange Collapse Hands Europe Its First MiCA Test  appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) launched its first supervisory sweep of licensed crypto firms on July 8, putting custody resilience under EU-wide review. It comes days after MiCA took full effect and popular crypto exchange AscendEX (formerly BitMax) collapsed. ESMA has not connected the two events. However, the timing hands regulators a live example of what failed crypto custody costs users. ESMA Custody Review Targets Crypto’s Weakest Point In its July 8 release, ESMA said the Common Supervisory Action (CSA) will assess how crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) manage custody risks. National regulators will examine a risk-based sample of authorized firms from late 2026 into early 2027. The exercise targets risks specific to distributed ledger technology (DLT). Reviewers will test governance, key and storage management, transaction controls, incident detecti

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The post Kraken Arbitration Win Highlights Regulatory Challenges appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Kraken’s parent company just turned years of regulatory frustration into a $22 million arbitration win — and the story behind it exposes just how much damage the Biden-era crackdown on crypto quietly inflicted on the industry. Key takeaways Payward, Kraken’s parent company, won a $22 million arbitration award against auditor Mazars USA after the firm abandoned a nearly complete audit in 2022. Mazars halted the audit just days before completion, citing legal uncertainty including an SEC complaint against Kraken — a complaint later dismissed after Gary Gensler resigned. The arbitrator found that Mazars’ withdrawal created a “licensing crisis” for Kraken, affecting its ability to obtain state money transmitter licenses; $12.5 million of the award relates to Kraken’s acquisition of TradeStation Crypto. Operation Choke Point 2.0 — the Biden administration’s unofficial campaign pressuring ba