Orionx halts withdrawals ahead of permanent shutdown after $7M custody shortfall

Orionx, a Santiago-based cryptocurrency exchange backed by Tether, announced its permanent closure on September 3 after a forensic audit revealed a custody shortfall exceeding $7 million in customer assets. The exchange simultaneously suspended all withdrawals, leaving more than 100,000 registered users unable to access their funds. The day before going public with the shutdown, Orionx filed a criminal complaint against its co-founders Joaquín Díaz and Roberto Zibert, along with other former employees. The allegations center on unauthorized transfers of customer assets that reportedly occurred between 2018 and 2021. A forensic audit with ugly results The audit compared Orionx’s internal transaction records against on-chain data. What it found was a gap between what users’ accounts said they held and what the exchange’s wallets actually contained. The missing assets span several major tokens: Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, and Polygon’s POL. According to the audit’s findings, those assets had been moved to external addresses without proper authorization. Orionx has announced a phased restitution plan to try making users whole, but the exchange itself acknowledged it cannot guarantee full reco...