Binance Exchange Daily BTC Withdrawal Tops $500M As CZ Says “FD&D Help Us Grow”
Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals from the largest crypto exchange Binance have passed $500 million in the last 24 hours as the CEO shouts “FUD”.
Data from on-chain monitoring resource Coinglass shows that Binance’s BTC balance decreased by over 30,000 BTC until December 13.
CZ: FUD is “thoroughly irritating”
The latest hotspot for fallout from the FTX debacle, Binance has joined exchanges that have seen an exodus of user funds.
According to Coinglass, users withdrew 30,300 BTC ($515 million) in the 24 hours at the time of writing, making up most of the week’s total of 40,150 BTC.
The abnormal behavior comes as Binance battles what CEO Changpeng Zhao (also known as CZ) called “FUD” on social media.
As Cointelegraph reported, nerves first frayed after a report in Reuters suggested the exchange would be the target of a money laundering lawsuit in the United States.
Zhao denied this, sharing a statement from Binance refuting the report’s claims.
Afterwards, however, reports on large token withdrawals by Justin Sun, CEO and founder of TRON, exacerbated tensions.
Despite Zhao as well takes critics to task and Sun made a $100 million deposit back to Binance, users were quick to remove their own funds from their accounts. A temporary one suspension of certain withdrawals of Binance’s stablecoin, BUSD, were ongoing at the time of writing.
“FUD helps us grow, even though they are very annoying,” Zhao wrote in his latest Twitter thread on the subject:
“You can FUD about someone without explicitly mentioning their name, which spreads awareness. It also helps unite their supporters because it forms a common defense alliance.”
The events mimic those from earlier in the FTX debacle, when exchange users en masse took custody of their money. At that point, however, Binance’s BTC balance actually increased.
BTC relief bounce target $17,500
BTC price action continued unaffected by Binance panic, BTC/USD surged on the day to near $17,500, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed.
Related: “Biggest Week of the Year” – 5 Things to Know in Bitcoin This Week
Binance’s internal token, BNB (BNB), also recovered from a brief drop to nearly $250 – its lowest level since November 22.
On social media, old hands appeared just as cool on the episode.
“If you want to minimize the market impact on your BNB sale, I’d be happy to buy one from you for $22!” popular merchant Pentoshi joked when R&D triggered BNB/USD weakness.
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