Binance locks withdrawals for some accounts amid what CEO calls 'just market behavior'

Quick Take

Abnormal price movements on Binance sparked an internal investigation.
The crypto exchange’s CEO concluded they were “just market behavior.”
Binance “temporarily locked withdrawals” for some accounts that were profiting from it.

Abnormal price movements on Binance, the leading crypto exchange by volume, sparked an internal investigation that led to CEO Changpeng Zhao concluding the movements were "just market behavior" — despite temporarily freezing withdrawals for some profiting accounts.

Binance's official Twitter account announced the investigation at 3:10 a.m. ET. It later concluded that the odd price movements were not the result of compromised accounts or stolen API keys. The trading pairs involved included Sun Token, Ardor, Osmosis, FUNToken and Golem.

"Based on our investigations so far, this appears to be just market behavior," Zhao, who goes by "CZ," tweeted before explaining: "One guy deposited funds and started buying. (Hackers don’t deposit). Other guys followed. Can’t see linkage between the accounts."

Still, Binance "temporarily locked withdrawals on some of the profiting accounts," according to its CEO — sparking debates about the role of centralized exchanges and how much they should intervene.

"We are aware of the concept of too much intervention from the platform," CZ tweeted, adding: "There is a balance to how much we should intervene. Sometimes, these happen in free market, and we need to let it play out."