Orionx, the Chilean crypto exchange backed by Tether, has begun permanently shutting down after a forensic audit found more than $7 million in customer assets had been moved to wallets the company does not control. Withdrawals remain suspended and the exchange has filed a criminal complaint against two cofounders.
The company announced the closure process after an external audit compared its internal records with data verifiable on-chain. The result was a mismatch: recorded customer balances for Bitcoin, Ether, XRP and Polygon exceeded what was actually sitting in Orionx custody addresses. The shortfall affects more than 100,000 registered users, an average of roughly $70 per user, though the distribution is likely uneven. The exchange says it cannot guarantee that every client will recover 100 percent of their assets.
How the gap surfaced
According to the criminal complaint, chief operating officer Thomas Mac Millan detected a “significant mismatch” between system balances and held assets on August 27. Orionx was working toward compliance with Chile’s Fintech Law at the time and had brought in outside financial professionals for a review. An internal check led to an external forensic audit, which traced transactions moving assets out of custody to accounts on other crypto platforms, some tied to company email addresses.
The complaint, filed with Chile’s Public Prosecutor’s Office on September 2, targets former general manager Roberto Zibert and former technology manager Joaquin Diaz, both cofounders with privileged access to custody systems. Prosecutors allege an account associated with Diaz received more than $1.5 million across 14 transfers, and that another wallet received 187 Ether, more than 4.1 million USDT and 200,000 USDC. The questioned transfers reportedly date from 2018 to 2021, though different local outlets give slightly different windows and the timing remains an allegation, not a judicial finding.
“Our sole priority now is to return as much of our clients’ assets as possible,” Orionx said in its closure announcement.
The founders answer
Zibert and Diaz deny the allegations. In a joint statement they said they never acted against customers’ interests and that the cause of the custody deficit has not been established. Neither has been charged or convicted, and the criminal complaint starts an investigative process rather than proving the exchange’s claims. Orionx has not published affected wallet addresses, transaction hashes or a breakdown of the shortfall by asset, which makes independent verification difficult.
If the complaint holds up in court, the picture is stark: customer crypto allegedly treated as a house account for at least three years, without customer knowledge. If it does not, and the audit eventually shows an external breach with properly segregated reserves, the custodial theft framing collapses. Right now the evidence sits in a sealed investigative file in Chile, and neither outcome can be ruled out from the outside.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Shortfall | Over $7 million in BTC, ETH, XRP and POL |
| Users affected | More than 100,000 registered |
| Complaint filed | Sept 2, 2026, Public Prosecutor’s Office |
| Accused | Cofounders Roberto Zibert and Joaquin Diaz |
| Alleged transfer window | 2018-2021 |
A regulator that could not act
Chile’s Financial Market Commission rejected Orionx’s application to join the Financial Services Provider Registry under the Fintech Law on June 19, citing failures to provide audited financials and client protection guarantees. The regulator confirmed on September 4 that it never supervised Orionx and cannot order restitution, leaving users to pursue recovery through the courts. The exchange operated for years without a license in a country whose crypto rules were still being phased in.
Tether led Orionx’s Series A in June 2025 as part of its push into Latin America, fifteen months before the closure. The stablecoin issuer has not commented on the shutdown. Founded in Chile in 2017, Orionx grew from a retail exchange into a payment and financial services platform operating in Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico.
The closure fits a wider 2026 pattern. BitMEX ceases operations September 23, BitMart is closing by January 31, 2027, and NoOnes wound down after sanctions hit its partners. Older, lightly supervised platforms are exiting while regulated venues absorb their markets. For Orionx customers, the exchange has warned that people waiting for recoveries are common targets for phishing and fraudulent recovery services, and it advises clients to trust only announcements sent through its official channels.