Binance Launches Internal Investigation Following Ronin Listing Controversy

Yi He, co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has announced a reward ranging from $10,000 to $5 million for information confirming corruption among employees, with anonymity assured for the informant.

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

This follows a series of accusations against the exchange’s team regarding potential leaks of information about various coin listings. The community particularly noted the sharp decline in the price of the Ronin (RON) token following its addition to Binance.

we can tell pic.twitter.com/cBWdF4Xr0g

— Moon (@MoonGotchi) February 5, 2024

In the week leading up to the announcement, RON rose by more than 30%. An hour after the listing announcement on Binance, it fell by 18%. Over the course of a day, the price dropped by more than 26%, according to CoinGecko.

In response to this situation, the exchange plans to review its listing process, potentially cancelling it in the event of information leaks, and to tighten control over the team responsible for adding new coins.

Binance will blacklist projects that hire employees dismissed for such actions.

Yi He also suggested that Binance trading pairs and announcements might be monitored by scripts.

In January, Coinbase director Conor Grogan highlighted several coins that users purchased minutes before their listing on Binance, only to sell them after the announcement.

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

He speculated that insiders within the exchange’s team or external traders who discovered test transactions with the token on the platform might be involved.

Back in late 2023, the Hooked Protocol team was suspected of insider trading.