Crypto News: Crypto exchange Binance offers $5 million bounty against corruption
3 min readBinance is the largest crypto exchange in the world. Not only do millions of daily users meet here, but there are also a particularly large number of cryptocurrencies available for trading. This makes Binance an important and integral part of the crypto world. Nevertheless, the crypto exchange has suffered some blows of fate in the last few months. For example, the platform’s previous CEO – Changpeng “CZ” Zhao – was convicted in the USA of violating money laundering regulations and had to resign from his post.
In addition, there has been speculation for several months that other employees of the exchange have also violated laws – especially in the area of the token listing process. To counteract the potential corruption, Binance has offered a bounty of $5 million. Among other things, leaks that could encourage insider trading should be eliminated.
Drop in price of the RON token as an initiating factor?
One of the most recently discussed controversies can be traced back to the cryptocurrency Ronin (RON). After a particularly strong price increase of over 47% within a very short period of time, voices were raised on various social media platforms that spoke of insider trading. These accusations were so persistent that Binance co-founder Yi He spoke out via X (formerly Twitter) and stated that he would definitely be following this discussion.
In addition, in a series of tweets, he explained the conclusions that he and the Binance team drew from this event and how they would like to deal with similar situations in the future.
感谢今天所有关心币安，热爱币安，支持币安的朋友们，也收到了很多建议，我都有认真一条条看。过去偶尔有关于币安上币信息泄漏的激烈讨论，通常是一些尚未发布代币的项目，社区为了保持热度过度宣传并不鲜见；但今天RONIN上币公告发布后RONIN价格下跌引发了社区激烈讨论，经过内部调查发现是之前集成公…
— Yi He (@heyibinance) February 5, 2024
The speculation surrounding the Binance leak could ultimately have contributed to the Ronin Coin experiencing a particularly strong price correction. Within an hour, the RON price fell from $3.4904 to $2.7835, a loss of over 20%. This is a significant price difference that is rarely observed even on the crypto market.
However, Yi He claims in his text on He clearly rejected the allegations of insider trading.
In the week before its Binance listing alone, the RON token experienced an increase of over 30% before the price drop seen above occurred. When you look at the chart above, the question arises as to who actually knew about a Binance listing and was able to make investments before the price collapsed.
Crypto experts have already found previous potential Binance leaks
The current allegations of insider trading by Binance employees are no coincidence. Two weeks ago, Conor Grogan, CEO of the crypto exchange Coinbase, said that he had found similar data that suggested insider trading. Grogan claimed that he had identified several crypto wallets that would invest in cryptocurrencies according to a certain pattern.
Each time before a new cryptocurrency is listed on Binance, these wallets would invest in exactly these tokens and immediately sell the crypto coins again as soon as an official announcement has been made and the price of the respective cryptocurrency has risen.
It appears that there is a pattern of Binance front-running over 18+ months
I found connected wallets that:
-Bought $900k Rari seconds before and dumped minutes after listing
-Bought ~78K ERN between June 17 and June 21 and sold right after listing announcement
-Did same w/ TORN https://t.co/yAolrfeHkO pic.twitter.com/VRq3vzfcgd— Conor (@jconorgrogan) January 23, 2023
The Coinbase director speculates that there could be a connection to a “ rogue employee ”. This could either work with the Binance listing team or be a member themselves. Even a connection to a crypto trader who benefits from the information could be possible, according to Grogan.
In view of these rumors, which have been becoming increasingly evident for several weeks, Binance has now, despite denials, taken steps to combat any corruption.
