Hotbit, a Hong Kong-registered centralized crypto exchange, halted its exchange operations on May 22, 2023 and asked users to withdraw their assets by 04:00 UTC on June 21, 2023. The team said it had run the exchange for 5 years and 4 months and served about 5 million users. If you are searching for Hotbit today, the exchange is gone; below is what happened and how to swap tokens without a custodial account.
Key Takeaways
- August 2022: Hotbit suspended trading, deposits and withdrawals after law-enforcement authorities froze some of its funds in a criminal investigation involving a former employee.
- May 22, 2023: Hotbit announced the end of its centralized exchange operations.
- June 21, 2023, 04:00 UTC: the withdrawal deadline it gave users.
- Reason given: continuous outflows of user funds and falling cash flow after the 2022 freeze and the FTX collapse.
What Hotbit Was
Hotbit was known for listing many small-cap altcoins that larger exchanges did not carry, which made it popular with traders hunting early listings. That same long tail of thin markets is where custodial risk hurts most: when an exchange freezes, small tokens often have nowhere else to trade.
What Happened
In August 2022 Hotbit paused trading, deposits and withdrawals after authorities froze part of its funds during an investigation into a former employee. By its own account, users kept withdrawing and cash flow kept falling, especially after the collapse of FTX in November 2022. On May 22, 2023 it announced that it would stop its centralized exchange operations, saying it had become too difficult to run a centralized exchange, and set the June 21 withdrawal deadline.
Sources: Bloomberg Law, CoinDesk, Forklog.
If You Still Had Funds on Hotbit
- Check your email from 2023 for official instructions sent to your account address.
- Use only official channels. Anyone who contacts you offering to “recover” Hotbit balances for a fee is almost certainly running a recovery scam.
- Never share your seed phrase or deposit money to “unlock” an old balance.
We cannot confirm any working claims process today, so treat every new “Hotbit relaunch” or “refund portal” with suspicion.
Swapping Without an Exchange Account
The lesson of Hotbit, STEX and FTX is the same: tokens on an exchange are an IOU from the exchange. A non-custodial swap runs from your own wallet: your tokens leave your address and the result arrives back in it in the same flow, with no deposit balance that can be frozen. Use the widget on this page to swap between 60+ networks without an account.
| Centralized exchange | Non-custodial swap | |
|---|---|---|
| Who holds funds | the exchange | you |
| Account and KYC | usually yes | no |
| Risk if the platform stops | balances can be frozen or lost | your tokens stay in your wallet |
| Small-cap tokens | only listed ones | any token with on-chain liquidity |
Limits
A non-custodial swap does not protect you from bad tokens, thin liquidity or scams: check the token contract and price impact before you sign. See what is slippage and crypto bridge safety.
