The coming week brings a dense lineup of crypto market, policy, exchange, and token-unlock events. On Sept. 23, Wanxiang Blockchain Labs will host the 12th Global Blockchain Summit in Shanghai as part of Shanghai Blockchain International Week. The same day, BitMEX is set to shut down at 12:00 Beijing time after its parent board decided to close the exchange following a strategic review. Several exchange and product changes are also scheduled. Binance will delist Pax Dollar (USDP) spot pairs and end related services on Sept. 24, while Coinbase plans to suspend trading in IoTeX (IOTX). Binance is also supporting Stargate Finance’s STG token merger into LayerZero’s ZRO, including the removal of STG perpetual contracts. On the infrastructure and policy side, the Eurosystem’s DLT settlement project Pontes is due to go live on Sept. 21, with the European Central Bank framing it as an operational service rather than another pilot. Thailand’s SEC will close public consultation on a proposed stablecoin rule on Sept. 25. Token unlocks are another focal point. Plasma (XPL) is scheduled to unlock about 1.76 billion tokens on Sept. 25, equal to roughly 63.20% of circulating supply and valued at about $158 million. Humanity Protocol (H), Big Time (BIGTIME), SoSoValue (SOSO), SPACE ID (ID), MBG, SOON, and STBL are also on the calendar.

WuBlockchain’s weekly roundup focused on policy, regulation and institutional moves across crypto and traditional finance. The U.S. Federal Reserve raised its target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%–4.00% in a unanimous 12-0 vote, while saying inflation remains elevated. In Washington, the CLARITY Act failed to advance in the U.S. Senate after falling short of the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture, with support not even reaching 50. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also approved a temporary conditional “Innovation Exemption” that would let qualified tokenized securities venues pilot trading in tokenized NMS stocks under a limited framework. Outside the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported that European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde personally intervened in a process that would have given Binance a foothold in the EU through Greece. In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority said banks will still be allowed to keep payment restrictions on crypto exchanges even after the new cryptoasset regime takes effect in 2027. The week also included major industry developments: CoinEx said it will wind down its exchange after nearly nine years and close withdrawals on Dec. 22; the New York Stock Exchange is said to be working toward 24/7 on-chain trading through an ATS platform; Column launched bank-native stablecoin infrastructure; Circle launched the Arc mainnet and minted 10 billion ARC tokens; and Deutsche Bank said it plans to roll out crypto custody later this year, pending final regulatory approval.

The U.S. Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act after the measure drew only 49 votes, well short of the 60 needed to move legislation forward. According to CoinDesk, negotiations broke down over ethics restrictions tied to President Donald Trump’s crypto holdings, with Democrats arguing the bill did not do enough to prevent senior officials from profiting from personal digital asset positions, while Republicans said they had already made major concessions. Binance, meanwhile, said its commodity-linked TradFi perpetual contracts would move to a 24/5 trading schedule starting Sept. 16 at 05:00 Beijing time, ending the previous one-hour daily maintenance pause. The change covers XAUUSDT, XAGUSDT, XPTUSDT, XPDUSDT, COPPERUSDT, CLUSDT, BZUSDT and NATGASUSDT, as well as future contracts in the same category. On-chain trackers also flagged several notable transfers. Onchain Lens said Multicoin Capital moved 441,000 HYPE, worth about $35.31 million, from four wallets to Coinbase Prime over the past six hours, a transaction interpreted as a possible pre-sale move. Lookonchain reported that BIT deposited 1,400 BTC to Binance and withdrew 10,000 ETH, while Lazarus Group sold 911 ETH over the past two hours at an average price of $2,499.

Crypto exchange CoinEx, which sponsored Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League All-Star Game in 2024, said it will wind down its exchange business and close the platform on Dec. 22, 2026. Founder Haipo Yang announced the decision in a public letter released on Sept. 15, saying CoinEx had failed to become a leading exchange and that security and compliance risks had become increasingly difficult to manage. According to the company’s shutdown plan, services will be phased out rather than halted all at once. New user registration stops on Sept. 15, non-spot services end on Sept. 22, and spot trading, CoinEx Smart Chain and OneSwap will stop on Sept. 29. Withdrawals will remain available until Dec. 22, 2026. Yang also said CoinEx’s reserve ratio is above 100%, while the report noted that both the reserve claim and the fulfillment commitment are statements from the platform and its founder. CoinEx said it will repurchase CET at 0.005 USDT per token with no quantity cap. The shutdown has also sparked fresh discussion about the cost of compliance for exchanges, with KOL giantcutie666 turning attention to HashKey. Separately, ViaBTC said its mining pool operations remain unaffected but users who send automatic withdrawals to CoinEx will need to reset those addresses before the linked function is removed.

Crypto exchange CoinEx said it will shut down its exchange business after citing a prolonged market slump, weaker trading volumes and liquidity, and higher regulatory and compliance costs. The company said those pressures had moved beyond what it described as "reasonable boundaries." The wind-down will happen in stages: non-spot services and most onchain deposits will stop from Sept. 22, spot trading will end from Sept. 29, and the withdrawal window will close on Dec. 22. Any USDT left unwithdrawn after that date will be moved to an independent custodian and incur a monthly custody fee. CoinEx also said it will stop new user registrations, referral commissions and other rewards, while futures contracts will shift to reduce-only mode. The firm plans to buy back CET at its initial listing price of 0.005 USDT per token. CoinEx Wallet and CoinEx Vault will keep operating because they are separate from the exchange. CoinEx was launched by ViaBTC in December 2017 and is ranked 33rd by 24-hour trading volume on CoinMarketCap, at $58 million.

CoinEx said on Sept. 14 that it will shut down its exchange business and enter an orderly wind-down, citing a prolonged crypto market downturn, a sharp contraction in industry trading volume and liquidity, and rising regulatory, compliance and operating uncertainty in key jurisdictions. The exchange said withdrawals will remain available until 02:00 UTC on Dec. 22, 2026, and stated that its reserve ratio is above 100% with user assets fully backed. The closure will happen in stages. New user registration stops on Sept. 15, while referral commissions, campaign rewards and new subscriptions across fiat, margin, lending, wealth management, staking and strategy products will also end. On Sept. 22, all non-spot services and on-chain deposits will be shut down, except CET deposits, which can continue until Sept. 29. Spot trading will end on Sept. 29, when CoinEx Smart Chain and OneSwap will also cease operations. CoinEx said its native token CET will be repurchased at 0.005 USDT per token. The report also revisits the exchange’s 2023 hack, which CoinEx said caused roughly $70 million in losses, and outlines regulatory pressure tied to a New York settlement, MiCA-driven service withdrawal from the European Economic Area, and allegations involving Iranian-linked flows that the company denied.

CoinEx founder Yang Haipo said on X that the exchange is proceeding with a shutdown and orderly user offboarding, while maintaining that customer withdrawals remain available. According to Yang, CoinEx currently has a reserve ratio above 100%, and user assets are fully backed. Explaining the decision, Yang said CoinEx has been operating for nine years but did not ultimately become a leading exchange in the industry. He also said that the security and compliance risks tied to running a crypto trading platform have become increasingly difficult to control. In his words, declining revenue can be tolerated, but responsibility does not shrink with it, making the risk-return balance no longer rational. Yang also disclosed that he seriously considered selling CoinEx before deciding against it. He said users entrusted assets to the platform based on confidence in CoinEx and, in many cases, in him personally, and that handing both the platform and that trust to a new owner was not the right way to conclude the journey. He added that CoinEx will ensure users can withdraw their assets in full and will buy back CET at its initial listing price of 0.005 USDT per CET without limit.

CoinEx founder Yang Haipo said the decision to shut down the platform came after what he described as deep consideration and the need to face a harsh reality. In a post on X on Sept. 15, he wrote that CoinEx failed to become one of the leading centralized exchanges in the industry, while the security and compliance risks tied to running a crypto CEX have become increasingly difficult to control. He said revenue may fall, but responsibility does not, adding that taking on unlimited risk for limited income is no longer a rational choice. On the platform token CET, Yang said CoinEx will repurchase the token at its initial listing price of 0.005 USDT per token, with no cap on the amount. He also disclosed that he had seriously considered selling CoinEx, but decided against it, saying users entrusted assets to the platform because they trusted CoinEx and, in many cases, trusted him personally.