OKX founder Star Xu told customers on Saturday to stop sending funds directly from rival exchange MEXC after the US moved to cut MEXC off from its financial system. OKX is a separate company and is not named in the US order. Xu warned that money linked to MEXC may be frozen and related accounts investigated.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), part of the US Treasury, issued the order on Friday, alleging that MEXC moved at least $16.7 billion in likely illicit funds between May 2021 and May 2026.
MEXC is among the 20 largest crypto exchanges, FinCEN said, with more than $1 billion in daily transactions as of June. The ban on US financial institutions starts only 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.
MEXC also competes for the traders brokers serve. It handled $86 billion of commodity perpetual futures in the third quarter, a 17.43% share behind only Binance, TokenInsight data show, and claimed 27.4% of crypto gold futures in the first quarter.
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Deposits Flagged Weeks Before the Deadline
The order applies only to US financial institutions, and Xu acknowledged the 30-day window. OKX has still tightened its controls ahead of that date, he wrote on X, and asked users not to send funds straight from MEXC.
"OKX treats FinCEN special measures with a level of caution similar to sanctions," Xu said.
OKX customers said on social media that deposits from MEXC were being held as coming from a "potentially high-risk address." Xu has said only that such funds "may be frozen."
MEXC's own balances moved as well. It recorded $126.03 million in net outflows over the 24 hours spanning the announcement and kept about $4.35 billion in tracked assets, DeFiLlama data cited by CryptoSlate show.
The outflow equals about 2.9% of those assets by FinanceMagnates.com's calculation, and the data do not show that all of it followed the order.
A US Order on Top of a European Retreat
The US order adds another date to a list of markets MEXC was already leaving. Dutch customers lose service on November 16, and the first French accounts go into wind-down two days later.
MEXC was not listed in August on the European Securities and Markets Authority's register of authorized crypto firms, which held 323 active legal entities by FM Intelligence's count.
FinCEN's order separately cites Seychelles, Hong Kong and Japan as places where MEXC ran without a license, the kind of status FM Intelligence's license and registration monitor follows across 150,000 records.
The 30-day clock puts the US ban in December at the earliest, by FinanceMagnates.com's calculation.
What FinCEN Says MEXC Processed
FinCEN's case centers on Russia, the legal basis for the order. It counted nearly $1.5 billion in exposure to Russian sanctions evasion from May 2021 to May 2026, including $232 million in direct transactions with sanctioned entities.
MEXC handled about $129 million with Garantex and $4.1 million with its successor Grinex after US sanctions on the two exchanges, the order says, and transacted with both as recently as June 2026.
It tied almost $200 million to A7A5, the ruble-backed token that PSB Bank's chief executive says has processed close to $140 billion. The order also cites more than $1.87 billion with exposure to Iran.
FinCEN said it assumed part of MEXC's business is legitimate but that the risks outweigh it.
MEXC said trading, deposits and withdrawals were operating normally and that customer funds remained secure. It has begun an independent review of its anti-money laundering and sanctions controls and said it would engage with FinCEN.
"The order itself does not freeze or seize any assets held on MEXC," CEO Vugar Usi said.
The company named former Bybit executive Robert MacDonald as chief compliance officer in July. It is now working with analytics firms such as Elliptic to have its addresses returned to the "exchange" category.
Brokers Fall Inside the Ban's Definition
The ban is not limited to banks. It applies to every "financial institution" under US anti-money laundering rules, a definition that also includes securities broker-dealers and futures commission merchants.
MEXC's share service relies on such firms. The company's FAQ says RealStocks accounts sit under VistaMX Markets Limited, which it describes as a licensed US broker-dealer, with Atomic Vaults Securities handling execution, clearing and custody.
MEXC reported more than 120,000 RealStocks accounts in August. FinCEN's order does not mention the service.
The order sets no end date for the ban, although FinCEN kept the authority to grant exemptions.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
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