BitMart users allege founder blocked appeals over 800,000 ATEG

BitMart users have accused founder Sheldon Xia of blocking them on X after they requested access to roughly 800,000 ATEG tokens and other funds held on the exchange during its wind-down. Summary ATEG representatives say 800,000 project tokens and an unspecified USDC balance remain inaccessible on BitMart. Users allege Sheldon Xia blocked their accounts after public requests for access to funds. BitMart’s proposed recovery options remain subject to approvals, with no withdrawal date in its roadmap. Researchers traced a separate $391,000 drain across three networks from wallets mostly linked to BitMart. Aliyu Almustapha, who signed an earlier appeal as ATEG Capital’s chief financial officer, said in a Nov. 4 post that Xia blocked him after he publicly requested the return of project assets. He said the tokens remain inaccessible alongside USDC, without specifying the stablecoin balance. His post included screenshots displaying notices that Xia’s account had blocked users, together with an exchange balance screen. Almustapha described another customer’s unresolved holdings as approximately 391,000 USDT, while the embedded balance image displayed 391,003.61 USD. ATEG Capital asks BitMa...