Case summary
What happened
Hotbit operated an Investment Center with DeFi Farm, staking and other yield products alongside its centralized exchange. During 2023, Hotbit closed multiple investment products and stated that remaining positions would be automatically redeemed so users could check their investment accounts afterward. Those internal redemptions are not treated as proof of successful external withdrawal. On 22 May 2023, Hotbit announced that all CEX operations would stop and instructed users to withdraw remaining assets by 04:00 UTC on 21 June. The reviewed sources do not establish that every investment customer completed an external withdrawal or received all assets owed.
Customer result
Customer outcome
Partial repayment
First-party product notices establish internal redemptions before shutdown, but internal account redemption is not equivalent to external repayment. The 21 June 2023 withdrawal deadline likewise does not prove universal withdrawal. A secondary archival/index reproduction preserves later dated Hotbit notices stating that another DF-user compensation round would be conducted on 31 August 2023 and a final DF-account compensation round on 18 September. This supports `partial_repayment` for the DF-asset claimant class only. CYA does not infer full repayment, a universal recovery rate, completion for every DF holder, or resolution of other Hotbit investment/exchange balances.
- Estimated recovery
- No uniform recovery percentage established. A secondary archival/index reproduction of Hotbit's dated notices records multiple compensation rounds for DF asset users, but does not establish the amount actually received by every eligible holder or recovery for all other Hotbit balances.
- Repayment started
- 2023-08-31
- Repayment completed
- —
- Confidence
- Medium
Asset treatment
Terms risk
Unclear
Automatic product redemption into an investment account must not be described as external withdrawal, principal protection or completed repayment. Product-specific staking and DeFi labels do not prove direct user control of validators, protocols or smart contracts.
- Affected product
- Hotbit DeFi Farm, staking investment and related Investment Center products
- Confidence
- High
Hotbit support notices show that investment products were subscribed, closed and redeemed inside a centralized Hotbit Investment account. This establishes platform-administered account control but does not establish legal ownership of underlying assets, segregation, reserve backing, trust treatment, protocol-level custody or the user's rights during an exchange shutdown.
Known unknowns
Uncertainty
No single verified launch date is assigned to the product-scoped Investment Center because the reviewed first-party material spans multiple product launches and closures. Automatic redemption notices refer to balances becoming visible in Hotbit investment accounts and do not prove external withdrawal or universal repayment. The 22 May 2023 end date is the announced cessation of CEX operations, not a claim that every customer balance was resolved that day.
Chronology
Historical record
TIME DeFi Farm subscription closed
Hotbit closed subscription to the TIME T+1 DeFi Farm investment product and said remaining positions would be automatically redeemed on 3 February for users to view in their investment accounts on 4 February.
Automatic product redemption into the Hotbit investment account is not treated as proof of successful external withdrawal.
Multiple DeFi Farm investment products closed
Hotbit closed subscriptions for IOTX, REEF, WOO, BOTTO, OOE, EOS and ALICE T+1 DeFi Farm products and scheduled automatic redemption for remaining positions.
The first-party notice says users could check redeemed balances in their investment accounts after the automatic redemption date.
SPS staking investment product closed
Hotbit closed subscription to the SPS staking investment product and said the system would automatically redeem remaining positions for users who had not redeemed them themselves.
The support article title says T+8 while the article body says T+28. CYA preserves the product generically as SPS staking investment rather than choosing one inconsistent term label.
Hotbit ended centralized-exchange operations
Hotbit announced that all CEX operations would cease from 04:00 UTC on 22 May 2023 and asked users to withdraw remaining assets by 04:00 UTC on 21 June.
The withdrawal deadline is not treated as proof that every customer successfully withdrew or that every investment balance was fully repaid.
Hotbit announced another compensation round for DF asset users
A secondary archival/index reproduction of dated Hotbit notices records Hotbit stating on 31 August 2023 that it would conduct a new compensation round for all DF asset users, followed by a 18 September notice describing a final compensation round for DF asset accounts.
This supports a class-scoped partial-repayment event for DF asset holders only. It does not prove that every DF claimant received payment, that compensation restored the full original value, or that other Hotbit investment and exchange balances were fully resolved.
Source record
Evidence dossier
Filter by claim, reliability, source type, and whether evidence is linked to a specific event.
customer outcome
1 sourcesHotbit announcement archive reproduces DF asset compensation rounds
Blockspot.io
Secondary archival/index page reproduces dated Hotbit notices. The 30 June 2023 notice describes a proportional USDC/HTB compensation plan for DF asset holders; 31 August says a new compensation round would be conducted for all DF asset users that day; 18 September describes a final round for DF asset accounts. CYA uses this to establish that Hotbit announced multiple DF-account compensation rounds, not to establish a universal recovery percentage, full repayment, or completion for every eligible holder.
Event
5 sourcesHotbit closes TIME T+1 DeFi Farm investment product
Hotbit Support · 2023-02-02
First-party notice states subscription closed on 2 February, remaining positions would be automatically redeemed on 3 February, and users could check their investment accounts on 4 February. It does not establish external withdrawal completion.
Hotbit closes multiple T+1 DeFi Farm investment products
Hotbit Support · 2023-03-07
First-party notice lists IOTX, REEF, WOO, BOTTO, OOE, EOS and ALICE T+1 DeFi Farm products, closes subscriptions, schedules automatic redemption, and says balances can then be checked in the investment account.
Hotbit closes SPS staking investment product
Hotbit Support · 2023-04-21
First-party notice documents closure and automatic redemption. The article title calls the product T+8 while the body calls it T+28, so CYA does not resolve the inconsistent term label by guesswork.
Crypto Trading Platform Hotbit Terminates CEX Operations
CoinDesk · 2023-05-22
Contemporaneous report states Hotbit terminated centralized-exchange operations and users had until 04:00 UTC on 21 June to withdraw assets. The deadline does not prove withdrawal completion.
Hotbit Shutters Crypto Exchange, Urges Users to Withdraw Funds
Decrypt · 2023-05-22
Independent contemporaneous report quotes Hotbit's shutdown statement: CEX operations would stop from 04:00 UTC on 22 May and users were asked to withdraw remaining assets by 04:00 UTC on 21 June.
No evidence records match the current filters.
Comparative records