CoinEx is closing. On 15 September 2026 it announced that it is ceasing operations worldwide after nine years, and the timetable is short: trading closed on 29 September and the deadline for withdrawing funds ends on 22 December 2026. In Spain, moreover, it had no longer been permitted to provide services since 1 July, when the European MiCA regulation came fully into force.
The short answer: if you still have a balance on CoinEx, download your full history today and withdraw everything before 22 December. Whatever you do not take out is converted into USDT, passed to an external custodian that charges 5% a month and, in practice, eaten up by the fee before August 2028. And even if you have touched nothing, the shutdown has generated transactions for you that belong in your tax return.
Now the detail, in the order you need to do it.
The CoinEx shutdown timetable
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1 July 2026 | CoinEx stops providing services in the European Economic Area, Spain included, for lack of a MiCA licence. Withdrawals remain open |
| 15 September 2026 | It announces the full closure of the platform worldwide. No new sign-ups |
| 22 September 2026 | End of non-spot services: futures can only be closed, deposits blocked |
| 29 September 2026 | Spot trading closes. Open orders are cancelled and the forced conversion to USDT begins |
| 22 December 2026, 02:00 UTC | Last day to withdraw. CoinEx ceases operations |
| 22 August 2028 | Deadline for claiming any USDT left in custody |
What to do now: the five steps
- Download your full CoinEx history. Before anything else. After 22 December you will not be able to log in, and without that history you cannot prove what you bought or at what price.
- Check what you hold in the account right now. If you did not withdraw before 29 September, your coins have most likely already been converted into USDT.
- Open an account on a platform with a MiCA licence and verify your identity, so you have somewhere to send the money.
- Send a small test first. Check that it arrives over the right network and only then withdraw the rest.
- Withdraw everything before 22 December. Do not wait until the last week: platforms that are shutting down tend to slow down towards the end.
The most expensive mistake: leaving your balance on CoinEx “for later”. From 22 December, whatever remains passes to a custodian that charges 5% a month on the original balance. Do the maths: over the 20 months until 22 August 2028, that fee adds up to 100% of what you had.
Quick summary
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Can I still trade? | No. Spot trading closed on 29 September |
| Can I get my money out? | Yes, until 22 December 2026 at 02:00 UTC |
| What has happened to my coins? | If you did not withdraw them before 29 September, CoinEx sells them and converts them into USDT |
| What if I held small tokens? | Those with no market outside CoinEx are delisted and CoinEx does not commit to returning them |
| What happens if I do not withdraw in time? | The USDT passes into custody with a 5% monthly fee, claimable until 22 August 2028 |
| Where do I take the money? | To a platform with a MiCA licence (see alternatives below) |
| Do I have to do anything with the tax agency? | Yes. The forced conversion and the CET buy-back are transactions that belong in your tax return |
What has happened to your coins since 29 September
This is the point that causes the most confusion, because many people did not log into their account in time.
If you held coins other than USDT on 29 September, CoinEx began selling them on external markets and converting them into USDT. It does this in batches and without notifying each user: you do not choose the moment, nor do you know the price in advance. The upshot is that where you had bitcoin, ether or any other coin, you now have USDT.
If you held tokens with no market outside CoinEx, things are worse: those are not sold, they are delisted and the platform stops managing their wallets. CoinEx does not expressly take on either their custody or their refund.
If you held CET, CoinEx’s own token, the platform offered to buy it back at 0.005 USDT per unit until 29 September.
If you had futures positions, from 22 September they could only be closed, not opened.
Check it in your history, not from memory. For your tax return you need to know what was converted, when and at what value. It is one more reason to download your history before access closes.
How to get your money out of CoinEx
As trading is no longer possible, what you will be withdrawing is, almost always, USDT (or any coins that have not yet been processed).
How to do it without losing money on the way:
- On the destination platform, go to “Deposit”, pick USDT (or the coin you are going to send) and copy the address.
- Note the network it tells you to use (Ethereum/ERC-20, Tron/TRC-20, BSC/BEP-20, and so on). This is the critical point.
- On CoinEx, under “Withdraw”, paste the address and select exactly that same network.
- Send a small test amount and wait for it to arrive.
- Once you see it at the destination, send the rest.
Picking the wrong network is the mistake that genuinely loses people their funds. If you send over a network the destination does not support, getting the money back ranges from “very hard” to “impossible”, and with CoinEx about to close there will be no support to ask. Watch out with USDT, too: some European platforms with a MiCA licence have restricted this stablecoin, so check that the destination supports it before you send it.
Sending your coins or your USDT to another account of yours pays no tax: you are not selling anything, they are simply changing place. What is taxed is whatever happens afterwards: if on the new platform you exchange that USDT for euros or for another cryptocurrency, that transaction goes into your tax return.
Before anything else: download your history
When an exchange closes, the history is the first thing to be lost, and you are going to need it for at least four years, which is how long the tax agency has to review you.
Without it you cannot:
- Know what the coins you held cost you, which is what determines whether the forced conversion to USDT gave you a gain or a loss
- Apply the order the tax agency requires: the FIFO method, the first thing you buy is the first thing you sell
- Prove where the money came from if you receive a notice or a formal demand from the tax agency
Download everything: spot trades, deposits and withdrawals, futures, conversions and the forced conversion to USDT itself. Keep it in two separate places.
Step-by-step guide to downloading your CoinEx history →
Take screenshots of your final balance. As well as the CSVs, save screenshots of your balance and of the conversions with the date visible. If any export no longer works, request it from CoinEx support while it is still answering.
Where to take your money: alternatives to CoinEx with a MiCA licence
Do not make the mistake of jumping to another platform without a licence. These are the ones we recommend for most people:
| Exchange | Authorised entity | Country / regulator |
|---|---|---|
 Bit2Me Recommended | Bitcoinforme S.L. | 🇪🇸 Spain (CNMV) |
 Coinbase Recommended | Coinbase Luxembourg S.A. | 🇱🇺 Luxembourg (CSSF) |
 Kraken Recommended | Payward Europe Solutions Ltd. | 🇮🇪 Ireland (CBI) |
 Bitvavo | Bitvavo B.V. | 🇳🇱 Netherlands (AFM) |
 Bitpanda | Bitpanda GmbH | 🇦🇹 Austria (FMA) |
You will find the full list of licensed platforms, those that do not hold a licence either and the criteria for choosing in our guide to alternatives after Binance’s exit from Spain: the situation is the same.
Check it for yourself before you sign up. The only reliable source is the ESMA register of providers and the CNMV one. A platform being “registered with the Bank of Spain” does not mean it holds a MiCA licence.
If your plan is to hold for the long term rather than trade, the other option is your own wallet: no exchange can ever shut off your access again. In exchange, responsibility for the keys is yours alone, and holding your crypto in your wallet does not make it invisible to the tax agency.
Why CoinEx is closing
CoinEx attributes the closure to two things: the prolonged downturn in the crypto market, with less volume and less liquidity, and the rise in regulatory requirements and compliance costs in various countries.
In Europe, the blow had already landed earlier. Since 1 July 2026, MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) has required a licence to serve residents of the European Union, and CoinEx did not have one. That is why it announced it would stop operating in the European Economic Area by that date at the latest. The CNMV (Spain’s securities regulator), in fact, had already flagged it in 2022 as an unauthorised entity.
Two and a half months later, the European closure turned into a total one.
Careful: the shutdown has generated tax for you without your knowing
Many people who “have done nothing” in 2026 are going to have transactions to declare in their Renta 2026 (Spanish income tax return), the one filed in spring 2027, because the shutdown itself has generated them.
-
The forced conversion to USDT. Exchanging one cryptocurrency for another, and USDT is one, is a permuta (swap) and is taxed on the difference between what the coin cost you and the value of the USDT you receive. The fact that CoinEx made the conversion without asking you does not change the need to report it; what complicates matters is that you do not know the exact price of each batch.
-
The CET buy-back at 0.005 USDT. If you agreed to sell your CET, that is also a swap. It will normally result in a loss, and that loss can be offset against other gains if you declare it.
-
Tokens delisted without a refund. If you have been left without them and without compensation, it is a loss, but when and how it can be counted has no clear DGT (Spanish tax directorate) criterion and depends on what finally happens to those assets.
-
The 5% monthly custody fee, if you leave a balance after 22 December. How it is treated for tax purposes has no single answer.
-
Modelo 721. If on 31 December 2025 you held more than €50,000 on CoinEx and other foreign platforms and you already declared it, in the 721 for the 2026 tax year (filed from 1 January to 31 March 2027) you will normally have to report that you no longer hold those coins. What counts as your balance on 31 December 2026 if the money ends up in custody depends on your case. You will find the detail in our Modelo 721 guide.
On points 3, 4 and 5 there is no single answer: our specialists analyse your case and give it the correct treatment. Message us on WhatsApp.
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to get my money out of CoinEx?
Until 22 December 2026 at 02:00 UTC, which is 03:00 in Spain. After that, any USDT left passes into custody with a 5% monthly fee and can be claimed until 22 August 2028.
I did not withdraw before 29 September. Have I lost my coins?
Not necessarily. If they had a market outside CoinEx, the platform will have sold them and left you USDT in your account, which you can withdraw until 22 December. If they were tokens with no external liquidity, they are delisted and CoinEx does not commit to returning them.
Can I choose the price my coins are sold at?
No. CoinEx sells them in batches, without individual notice and at whatever price it obtains at that moment. That is why it is important to keep the record of each conversion: you will need it for your tax return.
Am I charged for withdrawing?
Withdrawing crypto always carries a network fee, which varies enormously depending on the network: over Ethereum it can cost several euros, and over Tron or BSC, cents. Check which networks the destination supports before you send.
Do I have to declare the forced conversion to USDT if I did not ask for it?
Yes. Exchanging one cryptocurrency for another is a swap, whether you asked for it or not. What may be more nuanced is how to document the value of each conversion: if you have doubts, our specialists review it.
Can I use a VPN or an account from another country to keep trading?
CoinEx has closed for the whole world, so there is nowhere to trade. And even if there were, if you are resident in Spain you are taxed in Spain, whatever your IP address says.
I only had a few euros on CoinEx. Should I be worried?
About withdrawing, yes, because whatever you leave will end up eaten by the custody fee. For the tax agency, there is no tax-free minimum: if you have to file a tax return for other income, the forced conversion goes in it even if the amounts are small.
Need help sorting out CoinEx with the tax agency?
The shutdown leaves many people with a half-finished history, coins converted at prices they do not know and balances spread across several platforms.
At CryptoImpuestos we help you recover your CoinEx history and your new platform’s, unify all your activity, calculate the result of the forced conversion and leave your tax return ready to file. Message us on WhatsApp or see our plans for individuals.
Last updated: 4 October 2026. Dates taken from CoinEx’s shutdown announcements. Always check the current status of any platform in the ESMA register before making decisions.
Víctor Lázaro
Marketing Director, Cryptoimpuestos.es
