- Orionx, a Chilean cryptocurrency exchange backed by Tether, is shutting down permanently after a forensic audit found more than US$7 million in custodial assets had moved to wallets outside its control.
- The exchange filed a criminal complaint against former co-founders Roberto Zibert and Joaquín Díaz, who categorically rejected the accusations and said they never acted against customers.
- Chile’s Financial Market Commission said it had rejected Orionx’s registration application in June and does not supervise the firm or its wind-down.
Orionx, a Chilean cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2017, is shutting down permanently after a forensic audit found more than US$7 million (AU$9.7 million) in customer assets had been moved to wallets outside its control.
The audit compared the exchange’s internal records against blockchain data and found custodial outflows to external addresses that were absent from its books, Orionx said.
The company has temporarily suspended withdrawals, telling customers the pause is meant to treat all users equally while it works to return as much of their assets as possible. It stopped short of promising full repayment.
Orionx said its chief operating officer, Thomas Mac Millan, flagged the mismatch in late August, triggering the internal review that led to the closure. The shortfall spans Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and Polygon, according to the audit.
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The day before it went public, on September 2, Orionx filed a criminal complaint against two former co-founders, ex-general manager Roberto Zibert and ex-technology manager Joaquín Díaz, alleging disloyal administration.
The complaint says the pair held the technical access and permissions needed to run the exchange’s custody systems, and accuses them of diverting customer funds over several years, including an account tied to one of the men that it says received more than US$1.5 million (AU$2.1 million) across 14 transfers between 2018 and 2021.
Zibert and Díaz categorically rejected the accusations. In a joint message to customers, they said they had never acted against clients’ interests and that the cause of the accounting shortfall had not been established, adding that they expected an independent investigation to clear them.
Rejected by the Regulator
Chile’s Financial Market Commission said on September 4 that Orionx and its activities are not supervised by the regulator.
The commission had rejected the exchange’s application to register as a financial services provider in June, meaning Orionx kept operating without the registration Chile’s Fintech Law requires. The commission said it is not overseeing the closure or any return of funds.
Tether led Orionx’s Series A funding round in June 2025. The stablecoin issuer has not commented on the shutdown, and the announcement of that investment was later removed from its website.
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