EXMO Pulls the Plug: Sanctioned Crypto Exchange Winds Down, Leaves Users Holding IOU Tokens

EXMO.com announced that it is beginning an orderly wind-down of the platform, citing UK financial sanctions against legal entities within the EXMO.com group. The exchange said it disputes the sanctions but is cooperating with authorities.

The designation traces back to May 26, 2026, when the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office added EXMO Exchange Limited to its Russia sanctions list alongside 17 other entities and individuals, including HTX (formerly Huobi), Bitpapa and Rapira Group.

The UK authorities framed the package as targeting the "A7 network," a group of crypto and banking infrastructure providers accused of helping fund Russia's war economy. EXMO was described in coverage of the action as an exchange popular among Russian-speaking traders.

Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs, which tracked the designations, noted that EXMO had said it exited the Russian market after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine by selling off its Russia-facing business under a separately rebranded entity, Exmo.me, a move Finance Magnates reported on at the time as part of a wave of financial firms cutting ties with Russian, Belarusian and Kazakh clients.

TRM's on-chain analysis reportedly found that the two platforms continued sharing custodial wallet infrastructure after the split.

Per Thursday's notice, the sanctions have frozen a portion of user assets held by third-party custodians, exchanges and banking providers, and immediately halted new account registrations, new deposits and the opening of new trading positions. Existing positions can still be closed.

What Happens to the Money

EXMO says 29.4% of its total obligations to users cannot currently be returned. The company attributes this shortfall to two separate causes: unrecovered funds from a December 2020 hack of its hot wallets, and the fresh freezes imposed by custodial, banking and payment providers following the May 2026 sanctions.

The 2020 breach, which Finance Magnates covered at the time, saw roughly 5% of the exchange's total assets stolen by hackers, with EXMO publishing the destination wallet addresses and reporting the incident to UK police.

According to EXMO, the stolen funds were later traced by analytics firm Crystal moving through exchanges including Poloniex and Binance, but were never recovered. The company says it has spent the years since directing profits toward covering the resulting gap, though rising crypto prices have kept the value of the shortfall growing relative to its obligations.

To account for the combined 29.4% gap, EXMO has deducted that percentage proportionally from every client balance and issued an equivalent amount of a new token called USDRecover (USDRec) in its place. The token is described as a debt claim on any assets the company recovers, whether frozen funds are eventually released or stolen funds are traced. It cannot be traded or withdrawn.

Withdrawals and Account Verification

The platform will stay online for a limited period solely to let clients withdraw remaining funds. EXMO says withdrawal requests are being processed in the order received, with processing now taking several days due to disrupted operations. Users must be fully verified for withdrawals to go through, and some accounts may be asked to complete additional identity checks.

Asset conversion between currencies remains available to help users move into withdrawable assets, though EXMO warns that liquidity and pricing may not behave normally across all pairs. Withdrawal fees may also rise to offset the loss of transaction-processing services that providers have suspended because of the sanctions.

EXMO has encouraged users to initiate withdrawals as soon as possible, noting that further fees or restrictions could be introduced as the wind-down progresses.