Binance Investigating Abnormal Price Movements on Crypto Exchange, Locks Withdrawals on Some Accounts
The world’s largest crypto exchange says it is probing certain accounts after noticing abnormal trading behavior on its platform.
Binance says it is taking precautionary measures after noticing atypical activity involving the altcoins Sun Token (SUN), Ardor (ARDR), Osmosis (OSMO), FUN Token (FUN) and Golem (GLM).
“We are aware of the abnormal price movements for certain trading pairs on Binance, involving assets such as SUN, ARDR, OSMO, FUN and GLM. Our team is investigating and taking appropriate actions in regards to the suspicious accounts.”
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says the platform suspended withdrawals for some traders during the process.
“We temporarily locked withdrawals on some of the profiting accounts, which caused a lot of complaints on social media, all from different countries.
We are aware of the concept of too much intervention from the platform, ‘too centralized’ attacks, etc. There is a balance to how much we should intervene. Sometimes, these happen in free markets, and we need to let it play out.”
The exchange later said that customer funds are safe after finding that the flagged activities didn’t seem to be a security issue.
“This activity does not appear to be due to compromised accounts or stolen API keys; funds are SAFU.”
Changpeng Zhao added,“Based on our investigations so far, this appears to be just market behavior. One guy deposited funds and started buying. (Hackers don’t deposit). Other guys followed. Can’t see linkage between the accounts.”