BitMart, the Cayman Islands-based cryptocurrency exchange, has released a preliminary restructuring proposal to repay users still carrying losses from the December 2021 hack that drained roughly $319.5 million from its wallets. The plan requires court sanction, and BitMart targets a court application in December 2026 or January 2027.

The exchange published the proposal on September 30, 2026, nearly five years after the breach was confirmed on December 4, 2021. The shortfall in user balances from that incident has never fully closed on BitMart's balance sheet. The company has been reviewing its operational strategy since mid-2026, citing a weaker market environment, and has restricted withdrawals while managing operational losses and balance sheet deficits.

How would the repayment plan work?

The proposal dollarizes all user balances using weighted average trading prices fixed to July 26, 2026. Whatever tokens an account held translate into a single dollar figure, and that figure becomes the user's claim.

From there, users choose between two paths:

• A pro-rata payout from BitMart's available liquid assets, paid in fiat currency or stablecoins.
• A conversion into newly created tokens: Restitution Tokens and Continuum Tokens, designed to reflect potential recoveries and the exchange's future profitability.

The July 26, 2026 valuation date carries real consequences. Users holding a token that rallies after that date will not capture the gain in their claim. Users holding a token that declines after that date are shielded from the loss. The pricing mechanism effectively freezes market exposure at a single point in time.

Who is advising the restructuring?

BitMart is not drafting the plan alone. Consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal and law firm White & Case are advising the restructuring. The exchange plans to solicit input from its 50 largest users over the next three to four weeks and expects to revise the proposal in November based on that feedback.

The consultation structure gives the exchange's largest creditors outsized influence over terms that will bind the broader user base. How BitMart weighs their input against smaller account holders' interests will shape the final filing.

What is the enforcement and court timeline?

Several dates define the path forward:

• November 2026: Expected revisions to the proposal following feedback from the 50 largest users.
• December 2026 or January 2027: Target window for the court application.
• Court sanction: The plan cannot move forward until a judge approves it.

Until the court sanctions the plan, users hold a proposal, not a payout schedule. The structured, court-supervised route carries additional weight given the ongoing scrutiny of BitMart's financial health, including prior discussions about potential bankruptcy proceedings. A sanctioned restructuring would formalize claims and bind users to the chosen repayment path, ending years of limbo for account holders affected by one of the largest exchange breaches of 2021.

The pivotal moment arrives with the court application in the December 2026 to January 2027 window, when users will learn whether the dollarized claims framework and the dual-token structure survive judicial review.