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Tether-backed Orionx exchange shuts down over $7 million asset shortfall
Chilean crypto exchange Orionx, which received an investment from Tether in 2025, has begun the process of permanently shutting down after discovering problems with the custody of customer assets. A forensic audit found that more than $7 million in cryptocurrency had been transferred to wallets outside the company's control.
Orionx said its sole priority now is to return as much of its customers' assets as possible. Withdrawals from the platform have been suspended while the matter is investigated.
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The closure comes roughly 15 months after USDT issuer Tether led Orionx's Series A funding round as part of its expansion in Latin America.
Shortfall discovered during reserve review
The problem came to light on August 27, when Orionx Chief Operating Officer Thomas Mac Millan identified a significant discrepancy between balances recorded in the exchange's internal systems and the assets actually under its control.
The company launched an internal review and later brought in external specialists to conduct a forensic audit. They compared Orionx's accounting records with publicly available onchain data.
The review found that balances recorded in the exchange's systems exceeded the actual reserves held at its custody addresses for Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and Polygon (POL). The total discrepancy exceeded $7 million.
According to the company's criminal complaint cited by Chilean newspaper La Tercera, the disputed transfers may have occurred between 2018 and 2021. Some of the assets were sent to accounts on other cryptocurrency platforms.
Orionx did not explain why the discrepancy went undetected for several years. The company's operations had been reviewed in part as it prepared to comply with Chile's Fintech Law.
Orionx accuses two co-founders
The company filed a criminal complaint against former executives and co-founders Roberto Zibert and Joaquín Díaz, who allegedly had access to Orionx's cryptocurrency custody system.
According to La Tercera, an account linked to Díaz allegedly received more than $1.5 million across 14 transfers. Another address cited in the case allegedly received 187 ETH, more than 4.1 million USDT and 200,000 USDC.
Zibert and Díaz denied the allegations. They said they had never acted against customers' interests and that the cause of the asset shortfall has yet to be established.
Orionx has operated since 2017, evolving from a retail crypto exchange into a platform offering cryptocurrency payments and financial services in Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. In June 2025, Tether became the sole lead investor in the company's Series A round.
The stablecoin issuer previously announced the shutdown of Alloy by Tether and its gold-backed aUSDT stablecoin two years after launch. The company decided to focus on products and business areas with stronger demand, including XAUT.
The shift in product strategy comes amid other legal issues involving Tether. In August, the company was sued over the freezing of 42.4 million USDT, which the plaintiffs claim occurred several months before U.S. authorities obtained a warrant to seize the funds.
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