The LSE Directory / Crypto exchanges
BitMart is a Cayman Islands registered cryptocurrency exchange, operated by Bachi Tech, that lets retail and institutional users trade spot, margin, and futures crypto markets. The platform lists more than 1,700 spot trading pairs and over 460 perpetual futures contracts, with margin trading available up to 5x leverage and futures up to 200x. Beyond trading, BitMart offers a P2P and card based fiat on ramp, savings, staking and lending products under an "Earn" umbrella, an NFT marketplace with a token launch (INO) function, an in house decentralized exchange, and a self custody Web3 wallet. BitMart differentiates itself from larger exchanges through an aggressive, community influenced token listing pipeline; it reports that 19 of the top 20 best performing tokens of 2025 first launched on its platform and that it listed more than 1,000 new assets in its eighth operating year. Its native token, BMX, is used for trading fee discounts and access to token sale events. The exchange targets retail traders in emerging and underserved markets rather than institutional order flow, layering in TradFi adjacent products such as US equity pairs, global index and metals contracts, and AI powered copy trading and trading bots, and reached coverage across all 50 US states in February 2026. BitMart was founded by Sheldon Xia in 2017 and launched public trading operations in 2018 after registering with FinCEN. Early institutional backing came from a Pre-A round led by Fenbushi Capital in August 2019 and a Series B round led by Alexander Capital Ventures in November 2021 that raised $13.7 million at a valuation above $300 million. In December 2021, hackers used a compromised private key to drain roughly $196 million in tokens from BitMart's Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain hot wallets, laundering the proceeds through the 1inch aggregator and the Tornado Cash mixer; BitMart halted withdrawals and pledged to reimburse affected users, and the breach prompted the US Federal Trade Commission to open its first ever cryptocurrency exchange investigation in 2022, later denying BitMart's bid to limit the document production it faced. In April 2025, founder Sheldon Xia moved to the role of Group President and Nenter (Nathan) Chow, a former Animoca Ventures partner with 17 years in investment banking at JPMorgan and MUFG, was appointed Global CEO. By its eighth anniversary in March 2026, BitMart reported more than 13 million registered users across over 180 countries. Recent product moves include a self custody Web3 Wallet launched in March 2026, a Visa branded BitMart Card rolled out in the US in September 2025 with introductory cashback offers up to 10 percent, and a January 2026 partnership with UNICEF Luxembourg to fund digital and financial literacy training for young people in Brazil.
