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."


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About Author

Adam is the managing editor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He is based in central Europe and was a managing editor and podcast host at the crypto exchange OKX's former research arm, OKX Insights. Before that, he co-founded BeInCrypto.com, which he elevated into one of the leading crypto media brands at its peak as the editor-in-chief. Earlier, he served as the editor-in-chief at Bitcoinist.com. Before joining the blockchain and crypto industry, he worked for Looper.com, Grunge.com and SVG.com. He tweets via @XBT002 and can be emailed at [email protected].

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