WooX withdrawal delays surface weeks after ownership change tied to BitMart founder
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Several WooX account holders say their withdrawal requests have sat unprocessed for three days, raising fresh scrutiny of the exchange's new ownership structure.
The complaints come after WooX, previously incubated by Kronos Research, changed hands in the fourth quarter of 2025 when it was acquired by FusionX Digital, a private equity fund. That fund is reported to have ties to Sheldon Xia, who founded BitMart Exchange. Users describing stuck withdrawals have been voicing frustration publicly, though the pattern so far is limited to what multiple account holders have described rather than any confirmed platform-wide freeze.
The timing amplifies concern because of what happened at BitMart itself. On July 26, 2026, BitMart said it would halt operations and pursue a restructuring, leaving users unable to reach what the community describes as millions of dollars in funds. Xia has responded with statements characterized as vague, asserting that user assets remain safe, but those assurances have not been independently verified.
The overlap between the two exchanges is structural, not incidental. FusionX Digital's acquisition of WooX established a Global Strategy Committee meant to oversee the platform's integration and product direction, and Xia sits on that committee alongside other industry figures. The arrangement was framed as a way to bring an experienced operator into the WOO ecosystem while the original WOO team, led by co-founder Jack Tan, shifts focus toward decentralized finance and AI products such as WOOFi and the closed-beta Starchild platform. The transition was described as a gradual process expected to unfold over six months, with assurances that user accounts, assets, and trading would face no disruption.
Those assurances are now being tested. WooX has not issued any statement addressing the withdrawal complaints as of this reporting. No figure has been given for how many users are affected or how much in funds is involved, and it remains unclear whether the delays stem from technical issues tied to the ownership transition or something closer to the liquidity problems now engulfing BitMart.
What remains unresolved is whether WooX's user funds are fully backed and accessible, whether Xia's role on the Global Strategy Committee has any bearing on the platform's operational decisions, and whether BitMart's unresolved fund crisis foreshadows similar risk at WooX. Coverage of the acquisition and its aftermath currently rests on two identifiable sources, alongside firsthand user reports, meaning the scope of the withdrawal problem has not yet been independently confirmed.