Orionx Crypto Exchange Shuts Down Following $7M Custody Asset Investigation

Custody Audit Reveals Significant Asset Discrepancy

Orionx, a cryptocurrency exchange backed by Tether, is ceasing all operations after an independent audit uncovered more than $7 million in customer cryptocurrency assets that had been moved to wallets outside the company’s control. According to the company’s announcement, the platform is initiating permanent closure procedures following the troubling discovery. The exchange has temporarily halted all withdrawals as it works to recover and return customer holdings.

The discrepancy surfaced on August 27 when Orionx’s chief operating officer Thomas Mac Millan detected a substantial gap between the cryptocurrency balances recorded in the company’s internal systems and the actual assets it held in custody. Following this discovery, the company commissioned an external forensic audit to compare its transaction records against verifiable onchain data. The investigation revealed that balances in Orionx’s accounting systems exceeded the actual cryptocurrency holdings across multiple digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Polygon tokens.

Criminal Allegations Emerge Against Co-Founders

Orionx has filed criminal charges against co-founders Roberto Zibert and Joaquín Díaz, alleging that the missing assets were transferred out of the platform’s custody between 2018 and 2021. These transfers allegedly went to wallets outside the platform’s management, including accounts on competing cryptocurrency exchanges. According to a criminal complaint reported by Chilean newspaper La Tercera, one account purportedly associated with Díaz received more than $1.5 million across a series of separate transfers. Additional wallets also allegedly received significant amounts, including 187 Ether, 4.1 million USDT stablecoin tokens, and 200,000 USDC from the exchange’s reserves.

Both Zibert and Díaz have publicly denied the allegations, asserting that they never acted against customer interests and suggesting that the true cause of the asset discrepancy remains unclear. The ongoing investigation will examine how such transfers could have occurred given these individuals’ direct access to the platform’s cryptocurrency custody systems.

Tether’s Failed Latin American Investment Strategy

Founded in Chile in 2017, Orionx evolved from a retail cryptocurrency exchange into a regional platform offering cryptocurrency payment processing and financial services across four Latin American countries: Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico. Tether, the company responsible for issuing the USDT stablecoin, made an aggressive strategic bet on the platform by leading its Series A funding round in June 2025 as part of its initiative to accelerate cryptocurrency adoption across the Latin American region. Notably, the investment announcement has since disappeared from Tether’s website.

The platform’s complete shutdown arrives just 15 months following Tether’s initial investment, representing a significant failure of the stablecoin company’s regional expansion strategy. Orionx had undertaken comprehensive operational reviews in 2025 to comply with Chile’s Fintech Law and brought in additional financial oversight professionals, yet these protective measures ultimately proved insufficient to prevent the custody crisis from destroying the platform. This collapse underscores the ongoing risks associated with centralized cryptocurrency platforms and their vulnerability to internal management failures, particularly in emerging markets where regulatory oversight continues to develop.

Source: Orionx, via Cointelegraph. Not financial advice.