Proof of Reserves and Third-Party Audits: How MEXC Proves Your Funds Are Safe

Firmly at the top of every crypto investor’s list of nightmare scenarios is the collapse of the exchange where they do their trading. The falls of various giants over the past decade—or, more to the point, the wiping out of their users’ holdings—have made investors wake up to the importance of transparency around exchanges’ reserves.

Today, Proof of Reserves has become a crucial tool for users to verify their funds are safe. Among the first to implement it as a core system was MEXC. Through monthly audits, public verification tools, and independent third-party validation, the exchange has come to show what transparent reserve disclosure looks like in practice. And this month the success of its efforts was confirmed in an audit performed by the blockchain cybersecurity firm Hacken.

What Proof of Reserves Actually Means

Proof of Reserves, or PoR, is a verification method that lets exchanges show they hold enough assets to cover all user deposits. It’s a technical mechanism that emerged from a fundamentally human question: How can users know their funds are safe?

To answer this question, traditional finance relies on bank regulators and deposit insurance. But for various reasons, those methods aren’t available in the crypto space. And so was born PoR, which creates a public, verifiable system where the exchange proves solvency without the intervention of a third party.

MEXC was among the earliest platforms to implement PoR as a system. Rather than treating PoR as a marketing exercise, though, it built transparency into its operations from the ground up, with the exchange having maintained public reserve data continuously since January 2023.

How MEXC Proves Its Reserves

So how exactly does MEXC’s PoR system work? Its bedrock is a combination of public disclosure and cryptographic verification that MEXC is maintaining a 1:1 reserve ratio—that is, for every dollar or token a user deposits, the exchange holds an equivalent amount in custody.

Initially, MEXC published PoR updates every two months. However, seeing the benefits of providing more frequent confirmation that reserves remain backed, it then shifted to monthly updates. Its PoR system covers assets across 27 blockchain networks, from Bitcoin and Ethereum to emerging chains like Base, Sonic, and Starknet. Comprehensive verification is guaranteed, regardless of where users hold assets.

The exchange discloses the structure of its mainstream asset holdings, letting users see not just that reserves exist but what they consist of. This transparency extends to wallet addresses that can be verified onchain.

At the technical level, MEXC uses a Merkle tree verification mechanism. A Merkle tree is a data structure that lets individual users verify their account balance is included in the total reserve calculation without exposing anyone else’s private information. Users can confirm their assets are accounted for simply by logging on at MEXC’s PoR page. Once they are logged in, they will receive verification that their funds are included in the Merkle tree calculation.

Independent Verification through Third-Party Audits

Measures like the Merkle tree are important for giving users peace of mind. However, it’s crucial to keep in mind that any exchange’s internal claims about solvency are worth only so much. In traditional securities, what creates a gold standard of trust above all else is audits performed by skilled and reputable neutral third parties. And that’s why MEXC subjects its reserves to independent security audits conducted by external firms.

In December 2025, the blockchain cybersecurity firm Hacken performed an audit of MEXC’s holdings. This confirmed that the holdings exceed user liabilities across all major assets. To get into the specifics, the audit found reserve ratios of 135% for Bitcoin, 130% for USDT, 124% for USDC, and 105% for Ethereum. Given that the threshold required for full solvency is 100%, these are all healthy numbers indeed.

What’s so important about this external audit is quite simply the fact that a commitment to independent verification puts exchanges like MEXC in a very select category in terms of transparency. Major platforms discontinued external audits, and some rely on internal dashboards alone, but MEXC maintains regular third-party validation

Perhaps, though, other exchanges will follow MEXC’s lead and submit themselves to third-party scrutiny in the future. As a Hacken spokesperson noted when its audit of MEXC was released: “We’ve seen increased transparency demand in the crypto industry over the past year, and the results of MEXC’s audit reflect this shift. In an environment where trust is built through verifiable data, MEXC shows its willingness to operate with transparency and back up its commitments with facts, not words.”

Hacken’s report has been published on the MEXC website, available for anyone to review—another way of achieving transparency.

Consistent Transparency over Time

As important as audits are, however, it’s essential to note that a single audit is a snapshot. Long-term credibility, by contrast, comes from sustained commitment.

MEXC’s reserve data has been public since January 2023, with PoR security reports released every two months and now monthly. Throughout 2025, all major assets maintained reserve rates above 110%, showing consistent over-collateralization even during market volatility. Historical data shows USDT between 113-130%, USDC between 106-124%, Bitcoin between 110-135%, and Ethereum between 103-110%.

This track record matters, because it shows that MEXC maintains excess reserves not just during favorable conditions or audit periods, but as standard operating procedure across market cycles.

A Dedicated Transparency Page

In a move coinciding with the Hacken audit, MEXC launched a dedicated transparency page in December 2025. that consolidates all reserve information in one location. There, users can access reserve data, verify their individual holdings, and review audit reports from a single interface.

Rather than requiring users to navigate multiple sources or interpret raw blockchain data, the page is designed to make verification straightforward. Or, to put things another way, it turns PoR from a technical feature into a practical tool for any user, regardless of their level of experience with crypto.

Why All This Matters for Exchange Users

Trust is something the cryptocurrency industry has learned about the hard way. When FTX collapsed, users discovered that funds they believed were held safe had been deployed elsewhere. And similar stories have played out across other failed platforms.

PoR provides a structural safeguard, because it turns “trust us” into “verify for yourself.” And, in the case of MEXC, the combination of public reserve disclosures, Merkle tree verification, and independent audits creates multiple layers of accountability.

It’s difficult to disagree with the proposition that, when users are deciding where to hold their assets, PoR is no longer optional, quite simply because it represents a baseline expectation for any exchange claiming to be secure. With its monthly updates, multi-chain coverage, and third-party audits, MEXC’s implementation offers a practical model for how exchanges can meet that expectation.

MEXC COO Vugar Usi re-emphasized the exchange’s commitment to transparency when he commented, “Independent Proof of Reserves audits are now a continuous, core standard practice within our operational framework. We will continue working with established auditing firms such as Hacken to ensure our users have verifiable assurance that their assets are backed.”

Visit the MEXC PoR page to access Hacken’s audit report, and, if you’re a MEXC user, to verify your own proof of reserves.