I just reviewed some fairly murky information that came to light about Bittrex’s bankruptcy. The documents it submitted to the courts reveal a serious financial mess.

According to the compliance investigator Pasha Onur’s analysis, we’re talking about more than 500 million in transactions that don’t add up. And it’s not just that the numbers don’t match. There are extremely strange patterns: withdrawals that make no economic sense, repetitive transfers for exactly the same amounts, and—this is the strangest part—activity recorded on blockchains of networks that had already been dead for years.

This is not a minor detail. When an exchange goes bankrupt, creditors rely on accurate records to collect what they’re owed. With irregularities of this scale, the entire distribution of funds is called into question. The figures they present could be completely distorted.

Bittrex already had a complicated history before the bankruptcy. It had an unpaid $24 million agreement with the U.S. Treasury’s OFAC for regulatory violations. It filed for bankruptcy in May 2023, closed operations in December of that same year, and the claims were resolved in April 2024. So far, creditors still haven’t received anything.

What’s interesting is that these findings about Bittrex’s bankruptcy are coming out now, when the case is practically over. But it highlights something important: the lack of transparency and inadequate record-keeping in these processes. It’s a reminder of why due diligence matters when you interact with any exchange, even those that seem established.