Morning Edition · Sunday, August 9, 2026Published at 2:30 AM EDT · New York

Four Years After FTX, Exchange Proof-of-Reserves Still Omits the Half That Matters

Inclusion proofs show a customer's balance was counted and show the exchange holds coins, but they do not prove that liabilities are complete, and BitMEX spent two years looking for a buyer before deciding to close.

Proof of reserves works exactly as advertised and proves less than customers assume. A user copies an identifier, follows a path through a Merkle tree and receives confirmation that their balance was included in the exchange's published tot…