Crypto Exchange Shutting Down: What to Do Before the Deadline Passes

Four providers have closed or sharply cut back their European business within seven weeks. The question worth asking is a practical one: what happens to the coins still sitting in your account when a crypto exchange shuts down?

It is almost always asked too late. A withdrawal from the market runs in stages, and the deadline that takes away the most room to act is usually the first one to expire.

This guide sets out the sequence all four cases share, and answers the point most people only notice afterwards: what a forced sale means for tax. If you are already thinking about where your holdings should sit in future, it is worth looking first at regulated crypto exchanges with EU authorisation.

Four crypto exchange exits in seven weeks: what the cases have in common

In order: at the end of June 2026, cryptoticker reported that Binance was restructuring its EU business as of July 1. The end of July brought BitMart's announcement that it would cease operations. In early August, Luno said it would close accounts in several EU regions, and Revolut announced it would remove the stablecoin USDT from its European offering by the end of August.

Four different providers, four different reasons. All of them follow the same pattern, and that pattern will apply again next time:

1. An announcement by email and in the help centre, often several weeks ahead.
2. A first block that switches off one specific function while everything else keeps running.
3. A cut-off date up to which you can sell and move money out.
4. An automatic measure for anything still in the account after that.
5. A cost mechanism that eats into the remaining balance.

Once you know the sequence, you read those emails differently. The decisive information is rarely in the headline; it sits further down, in the list of dates.

MiCA as the driver: why the authorisation requirement is thinning the crypto market

The common background is MiCA, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. Since the transitional arrangements ran out, every provider offering crypto services in the EU needs an authorisation as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider, or CASP. Obtaining one means going through a formal procedure and then staying under continuous supervision.

For you as a customer, three obligations matter most. An authorised provider has to hold client funds and client crypto-assets separately from its own, capital requirements apply, and there are disclosure duties covering risks, fees and complaints procedures. Those requirements are exactly what explains the exits. A provider essentially has two options: go through the procedure and carry the running cost, or give up the EU business. How thin the field really is shows in the analysis of the MiCA register from August 6, 2026: of the 329 authorisations counted there at the time, only 21 went to trading platforms. Further exits are therefore more likely than a return to the old line-up.

The ESMA register as the first check before any crypto trading venue

Whether a provider is authorised can be looked up publicly. The European Securities and Markets Authority, ESMA, keeps a register of authorised CASPs. It shows which company was authorised in which member state, and which services the authorisation covers. The check takes two minutes and is worth doing before any larger deposit: search ESMA's CASP register for the company name. For providers with a German authorisation, BaFin also maintains its own company database.

What to look for in the register

An entry is not a seal of approval for service quality; it only says that a provider is supervised. Check the company name carefully, because the brand and the legal entity often differ. No match does not automatically mean a dubious provider, but it does mean the MiCA safeguards do not apply there.

The three deadlines when a crypto exchange withdraws: crypto withdrawal, sale, euro payout

When a provider pulls out, it almost always sets three separate dates, in this order:

1. End of crypto withdrawals. From this point you can no longer send your coins to your own wallet or to another provider.
2. End of trading. From here the position can no longer be sold.
3. End of euro payouts. After that, even the cash no longer reaches your bank account.

The documented case here is Luno. According to the provider, transfers to external wallets ended at the end of June 2026, while selling and euro payouts remained possible until August 31, 2026.

Between the first and the last date there were a good two months. Anyone who missed the first deadline could still get to their money, but only in euros. That distinction is the most important point in this article.

Why the crypto withdrawal is blocked first

That the transfer to your own wallet is the first thing to go seems illogical, but it makes sense from the provider's side. External transfers are the most demanding part of the operation, because they require blockchain connections, anti-money-laundering monitoring and a department for misaddressed transfers.

For you this has a consequence that goes beyond any single provider. Once external withdrawals are blocked, you no longer have a choice between holding and selling. A custody problem turns into a taxable event, at a moment you do not control. So when an email arrives carrying the words discontinuation, withdrawal or closure, look first at the date from which no coins may leave the building.

Forced conversion and forced sale: when the crypto exchange decides without you

What happens to holdings still there after the cut-off date? Providers solve this differently, but always without asking. In Revolut's USDT delisting, the announced mechanism is an automatic conversion: anyone who has neither sold nor withdrawn the stablecoin by the end of August 2026 will have the remaining balance converted into the account's main currency at the rate applying on the day. According to the available reports, the trigger was that the issuer of USDT did not seek a MiCA authorisation for the stablecoin.

Two variants need to be kept apart:

• Conversion into fiat. The crypto-asset becomes euros. That is a sale, with everything that follows for tax.
• Conversion into another crypto-asset. USDT becomes an authorised stablecoin, for example. That counts as a swap too, even if the euro amount barely moves.

The second case surprises many people. Swapping one stablecoin for another feels like nothing at all, and still amounts to a disposal of the old holding for tax purposes.

Tax consequences in Germany: a forced crypto sale is a disposal

For private individuals with unlimited tax liability in Germany, gains from selling crypto-assets fall under private disposal transactions in Section 23 of the Income Tax Act. That applies whether you sell voluntarily or an exchange triggers the sale by withdrawing; the law offers no discount for involuntary disposals.

Three points from this are worth knowing. The holding period is one year, and once it has passed a disposal gain is no longer taxable. An exemption threshold applies to the total gains of a calendar year, and it falls away entirely once exceeded. And you have to be able to identify which units were acquired when, which is usually handled with the FIFO method per wallet or account.

The practical twist lies in how this meets the exit. If your position is eleven months old and the forced sale hits in the twelfth month, you lose the tax exemption that would have arrived four weeks later. With staggered purchases through a savings plan, that is the normal case. If you still have the option of moving the coins to your own wallet, the holding period continues untouched, because a transfer between your own addresses does not count as a disposal.

What to secure before the account disappears

The step most often overlooked has nothing to do with money. Once an account is closed, you can no longer reach the transaction history, and that is exactly what you need for your tax return. So before the cut-off date, pull:

• the full transaction export as a CSV file, covering the entire life of the account if possible,
• the trade confirmations and fee statements,
• the records of euro deposits and withdrawals,
• and the provider's closure notice, because it documents the reason for the sale.

Custody fees after the deadline: how a residual crypto balance melts away

One detail sits far down in the announcements: after the cut-off date the account often stays open and starts costing money. In Luno's case, monthly fees were announced for remaining balances, rising over time. That mainly hits accounts nobody thinks about any more, such as old secondary accounts and amounts below the level at which a payout feels worth the effort.

The emergency plan if you have missed the deadline

Suppose it has already happened: the cut-off date is behind you, and the app no longer offers a sell button. The money is usually not lost, but the route to it becomes awkward. At Luno, access after the cut-off date runs through customer service, which asks for a bank statement no older than three months. Self-service turns into an identification procedure.

Get in touch in writing, using the official address from the provider's help centre rather than a link from an email. Record the date and content of every message, and explicitly request the transaction history. Also check which supervisory authority is responsible, because with an authorised company there is a complaints route beyond customer service.

A warning belongs here. Around every announced closure, messages appear claiming to help rescue the balance and leading to fake login pages. No reputable provider asks you by email to enter your credentials or your seed phrase.

Early warning signs: spotting a crypto exchange exit before the email arrives

Exits announce themselves. None of the following signals proves anything on its own, but when several come together it is worth a second look at your choice of provider:

• Trading pairs disappear, particularly for stablecoins and smaller tokens.
• New deposits are capped or switched off for certain routes.
• An unusual wave of identity verification requests goes out.
• The fee structure changes at short notice to the disadvantage of small accounts.
• The company does not appear in the relevant registers, or only for a few categories of service. This point is the most reliable one, because it can be checked objectively.

Self-custody as the consequence: what hardware and software wallets do

As long as your coins sit with a provider, your access depends on that provider's business decisions and on its authorisation. Holdings in your own custody remove that risk, and in exchange you carry sole responsibility for the backup.

That responsibility should not be played down. Lose the seed phrase and there is no hotline; store it digitally without protection and you have swapped a provider risk for a theft risk. For larger amounts, a device with separate key storage is the usual route, while for everyday use many people find a software wallet on their phone enough.

What to take away when a crypto exchange closes

1. Look for the date, not the headline. With every closure email, note first the date from which crypto withdrawals stop. After that you can decide calmly whether to move your holdings to your own address, or sell and settle the proceeds with a provider offering reliable euro payouts.
2. Get long-term holdings out of third-party custody. What sits at your own address cannot be forced out by any exit. Which device is suitable for that is shown in the hardware wallet comparison.
3. Secure the records before the account closes. Transaction export, fee statement and closure notice belong in your archive. A crypto tax tool or portfolio tracker keeps acquisition dates and holding periods even when the exchange is gone.

(As of August 11, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)