How to Check Proof of Reserves: What an Exchange's PoR Can and Cannot Prove, and the Latest Reserve Ratios at 14 Exchanges

After FTX collapsed in November 2022, the major exchanges began publishing proof of reserves (PoR) to show that the assets they hold can cover user balances. Most international exchanges now publish one every month, and the page usually shows figures like BTC 109% and USDT 105%. This article explains how those figures are calculated, how to verify them yourself, and what they cannot prove.

The short version: with a proof of reserves, look at the reserve ratio for each coin, what assets the reserves actually hold, and whether you can verify for yourself that your account was included. It is a snapshot at one point in time, not a financial audit, so 100% or more does not mean the exchange carries no risk. Still, an exchange that publishes nothing, or only a list of wallet addresses, is clearly less transparent.

This article is a summary of information, not investment advice. Reserve ratios are data that exchanges publish themselves or commission others to verify at the time of the snapshot. Every figure here is dated, so check the exchange’s current page before relying on it. Keeping assets on an exchange carries the risk of the exchange itself.

What proof of reserves is

A proof of reserves answers one question: does the exchange hold enough coins to pay back all its users? It has two sides:

• Assets (reserves): how many coins sit in wallets the exchange controls. The exchange proves the addresses are its own by signing a message with the private key, or by sending a transaction from the wallet to itself.
• Liabilities (user balances): the sum of all users’ balances on the platform.

Reserve ratio = the exchange’s holdings of a coin ÷ users’ holdings of the same coin

A reserve ratio of 100% or more means that, at the moment of the snapshot, the exchange held enough of that coin to pay every user their balance of it.

Why it only caught on after 2022

FTX collapsed in November 2022, partly because user assets had been misused and the coins on its books were not enough to pay users back. After that, exchanges started publishing proof of reserves one after another: OKX’s first came out in November 2022, Bybit’s monthly reports began in December 2022, and Bitfinex published a list of wallet addresses on 11 November 2022 (CNBC, OKX, Bitfinex).

How proof of reserves works: Merkle trees and zero-knowledge proofs

Merkle trees: proving your balance was counted

The exchange treats each user’s account ID (hashed, so nobody can tell who it is) and balance as a “leaf”. Leaves are hashed together in pairs and merged upward until a single “root” is left. If the figure in any leaf changes, the root changes too. So with your own leaf and the path up from it, you can confirm that your balance was counted in total user liabilities.

Zero-knowledge proofs: closing the Merkle tree’s loophole

A Merkle tree alone has a loophole: the exchange can slip in a few fake accounts with negative balances to push total liabilities down. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin pointed this out in a November 2022 post and suggested zero-knowledge proofs, which can show that no balance is negative and that the balances add up to the published total, without revealing anyone’s balance (original post).

• Binance: Merkle tree plus zk-SNARK (official explanation).
• OKX: Merkle tree plus zk-STARK, with the verification tool open-sourced on GitHub (official explanation).

What proof of reserves cannot prove

On 8 March 2023 the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) issued an investor advisory pointing out that a proof of reserves is not an audit and cannot provide investors with any meaningful assurance (PCAOB). Specifically:

The PCAOB also warned that in some “third-party verifications” the exchange’s management decides what gets verified, and that verification firms do not work in a consistent way. The accounting firm Mazars paused its proof of reserves work for crypto clients including Binance, KuCoin and Crypto.com in December 2022, citing concerns about how the public understands these reports (CNBC).

What the reserves hold: a big total does not mean it can be turned into cash

When you see “total reserves of US$8 billion”, ask one more question: which coins are these reserves, and can they really be sold?

If the reserves are mostly heavily traded assets such as BTC, ETH and USDT, the book value can roughly be turned into cash. But if a large share is the exchange’s own platform token, tokens of projects closely tied to the exchange, or small coins that trade in only a few places with thin order books, the book price may be propped up by a small number of trades. Nobody needs to dump these assets for the problem to exist: when you actually try to sell, there are not enough buy orders in the market.

The FTX lesson: assets in a coin it issued itself

On 2 November 2022, CoinDesk reported that Alameda Research, the trading firm linked to FTX, held a large amount of FTT, the platform token FTX issued, and that FTT was one of its largest assets. Binance then announced it would sell its FTT. With low trading volume, FTT’s price crashed, setting off a run of about US$6 billion in withdrawals from FTX, and FTX went bankrupt that same month (Wikipedia summary).

Questions to ask about what the reserves hold

• What share is in major assets (BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC)?
• Is there a large amount of platform token, the exchange’s own projects or related tokens?
• For small coins with a large share, are their background, issuer and circulating supply transparent?
• Can the issuer still mint more of these small coins through the smart contract at any time? Can large on-chain flows be explained?
• Does the exchange hold a licence where you live and follow anti-money-laundering rules?

BitMart: a gap hidden for years, then a shutdown

On 26 July 2026 BitMart announced an orderly cessation of operations. From that day it stopped new registrations and deposits, spot stopped taking new orders, futures could only close positions, and all trading services stopped on 26 August (official announcement).

In an announcement on 30 September, BitMart explained why. A hack of about US$319.5 million in December 2021 used up its digital asset reserves and left a gap between assets and liabilities, but profits from the bull market kept it running. In 2026 the market weakened, its futures business was exploited by wash-trading groups, and social media attacks set off panic withdrawals, and it could no longer hold on. BitMart has appointed White & Case as restructuring counsel and Alvarez & Marsal as financial adviser. The initial proposal lets users choose between taking back part of their balance pro rata first, or converting it into “compensation tokens” tied to recovering the hacked assets (official announcement).

This case shows two things. A gap at an exchange can exist for years without outsiders seeing it. And by the time withdrawals slow down and the platform limits them, it is usually too late.

The latest proof of reserves at 14 international exchanges

The table shows the latest reserve ratios from each exchange’s official page or official data (“n/a” means the official data could not be retrieved or was not published):

Data checked: 2026-10-08

Why look at each coin and not only the total

HTX’s snapshot of 1 September 2026 combined stablecoins into one line showing 102%. In HTX’s official data, though, USDT on its own had a reserve ratio of 67%, made up by USDC at 704% and other stablecoins (HTX official data). In the 1 August snapshot, USDT on its own was 77%.

If you hold USDT, the number to look at is USDT’s own reserve ratio, not the combined 102%. Ourbit, by contrast, says on its page that each coin is verified separately and coins cannot offset one another.

Wallet addresses alone do not show what users are owed

Some exchanges publish only their wallet addresses. Anyone can look up on-chain how much they hold, but without user liabilities there is no way to work out a reserve ratio:

• Bitfinex: published a list of wallet addresses on GitHub on 11 November 2022. The last update was in December 2022, and there are no user liabilities in Merkle tree form (list).
• Pionex: CoinMarketCap’s Pionex page lists wallet addresses and assets reported by the exchange, and CoinMarketCap notes that it has not independently verified this information (CoinMarketCap).

The “Reserves” shown on sites such as CoinMarketCap are mostly wallet assets reported by the exchange like this. They are closer to a screenshot of assets than a full proof of reserves. If you can see the assets but not the liabilities, you cannot tell whether the assets are enough to pay users back.

What a third-party verification actually checked

Two reports can both say “Hacken” and still cover different things. Hacken’s September 2026 reports for Bybit and MEXC verify each snapshot. The Hacken audit listed on Gate’s page (3 January 2024) reviewed the proof of reserves code, not the monthly snapshots. Separately, Gate’s snapshot of 13 September 2026 published only a total reserve ratio of 117%, with no ratio for each coin.

How to verify your account was included

The process is much the same everywhere: log in, open the proof of reserves page, get your Merkle tree data, and verify it with the exchange’s open-source tool. Here is OKX as an example (official explanation):

1. Log in to OKX, go to the proof of reserves page, open “My report”, click “Details” on the latest snapshot, copy the data and save it as a file ending in _inclusion_proof.json.
2. Download the zk-STARK verification tool from OKX’s GitHub and put it in the same folder.
3. Run the tool. If you see “Inclusion constraint validation passed”, your balance was included.
4. To verify the total and that no balance is negative, download sum_proof_data.json from the “Liability report” and run it with the same tool.

Binance, Bybit, Bitget, KuCoin, HTX, MEXC and others offer something similar on their proof of reserves pages after you log in.

What to do when you see warning signs

If a proof of reserves shows any of the following, it does not mean the exchange must be in trouble, but it is worth cutting what you keep there down to the amount you need:

What to do:

• Withdraw a small test amount first to make sure withdrawals work, then take the rest out in batches. If you withdraw one large amount and it gets stuck, the whole amount is frozen (for a deposit delay I ran into, see “USDT deposit delayed: what to do”).
• Withdraw to a wallet where you hold the private keys, or spread your assets across other exchanges with more transparent reserves. The checks to run on a new cold wallet are in the checklist of the Ledger theft incident post.
• Do not wait for an announcement. When BitMart announced it would cease operations, the gap had already existed for years.

Checklist for reading a proof of reserves

1. Find the official page and the snapshot date: when was the latest one? Be wary if it has not been updated for two or three months.
2. Look at the coins you hold: is every coin’s reserve ratio at 100% or more? Do not rely only on the total or a combined stablecoin figure.
3. Look at what the reserves hold: what share is in major assets, and is there a large amount of platform token, related tokens or small coins with thin order books?
4. Check that liabilities are included: is it a Merkle tree or zero-knowledge proof, or only a list of wallet addresses? Addresses alone do not show what users are owed.
5. Verify it yourself: use the exchange’s open-source tool to confirm your account was included.
6. Note the share held by third-party custodians: that part cannot be checked on-chain.
7. Check who verified it and what they verified: each snapshot, or the code?
8. Check frequency and gaps: does it publish every month, and has it suddenly stopped?
9. Remember its limits: it is a snapshot, not an audit, and it cannot show other liabilities or borrowed or pledged assets.

Proof of reserves carries the most weight when I rate an exchange. The scoring is explained in “Exchange rating methodology”. For detailed write-ups of each exchange, such as the “OKX review” (monthly reports, zk-STARK), and more exchange comparisons, see the crypto topic page.

FAQ

What is proof of reserves?

An exchange publishes the assets it holds at a point in time and the total of its users' balances on the platform, to show that its assets can cover what it owes users. Reserve ratio = the exchange's holdings of a coin ÷ users' holdings of the same coin. At 100% or more, the assets covered user balances at the moment of the snapshot.

Does a proof of reserves of 100% or more mean an exchange is safe?

No. A proof of reserves is a snapshot at one point in time, not a financial audit. The US PCAOB warns that it usually does not cover the exchange's other liabilities or whether the assets were borrowed, and it says nothing about how the assets are used after the snapshot.

How do I confirm my account was included in a proof of reserves?

Most exchanges give you your Merkle tree leaf data on the proof of reserves page after you log in. Download the verification tool the exchange publishes as open source on GitHub and run it on your own computer to confirm your balance was counted in total user liabilities.

Why look at the reserve ratio for each coin instead of the total?

A total ratio can use surplus reserves in one coin to cover a shortfall in another. In HTX's snapshot of 1 September 2026, for example, stablecoins combined showed 102%, but in the official data USDT on its own was 67%, made up by USDC at 704%.

Is a proof of reserves verified by a third party more trustworthy?

It depends on what was verified. Some firms verify each snapshot (Hacken's September 2026 reports for Bybit and MEXC, for example), while others only review the proof of reserves code. The accounting firm Mazars paused its proof of reserves work for crypto exchanges in December 2022.

If an exchange's reserves look large, why can it still collapse?

The book value of the reserves cannot always be turned into money, for example a large amount of the exchange's own token or small coins with thin order books. A shortfall can also sit where outsiders cannot see it. BitMart's announcement of 30 September 2026 said it had a gap between assets and liabilities after a hack of about US$319.5 million in 2021, and it kept operating until it announced an orderly cessation of operations on 26 July 2026.