• Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, was accused of moving almost $2Bn without permission.
• Forbes published a report titled „Binance’s Asset Shuffling Eerily Similar To Maneuvers By FTX,“ which argued that the crypto giant transferred $1.8 billion associated with its users‘ funds.
• Binance denied the allegations, claiming that it had fully audited its reserves and never touched its clients‘ deposits.

Accusations Against Binance

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, was accused of moving almost $2 billion without permission. Forbes published a report titled „Binance’s Asset Shuffling Eerily Similar To Maneuvers By FTX,“ arguing that the crypto giant transferred $1.8 billion associated with its users‘ funds between August 17 and early December 2022.

The Allegations

According to Forbes, $1.1 billion of the funds extracted from customers in USDC tokens, the stablecoin issued by Circle, were sent to Cumberland/DWR – a Chicago-based high-frequency trading firm – which may have assisted Binance in its efforts to transform the collateral into its own BUSD stablecoin. Other relevant actors in the crypto ecosystem such as Amber Group, Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research and Justin Sun’s Tron also allegedly received hundreds of millions of dollars in funds from Binance.

Binance Denies The Allegations

In response to these allegations, Binance denied having moved any user funds and stated that it had fully audited its reserves and never touched clients‘ deposits. Moreover, they noted that all customer assets are safe and secure at all times due to their multi-signature wallet architecture system which requires multiple private keys for each transaction before any money is moved out of their wallets.

CTO Comments on The Incident

The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Binance Changpeng Zhao wrote on Twitter: “I don’t know where this FUD came from but I can assure you we did not move any user funds without permission.“ He further elaborated: „We do have protocols for inactive accounts but it does not involve moving anyone’s funds without prior notice.“

Conclusion

It remains unclear whether or not these accusations against Binance are true or simply FUD spread by malicious actors looking to damage the reputation of one of the most dominant exchanges in the industry. Only time will tell if there is any truth behind them or if they will remain unfounded rumors with no basis in reality whatsoever.