On March 9, the Binance exchange blocked a market maker servicing the GoPlus Security (GPS) and MyShell (SHELL) projects after identifying violations in its operations.
The actions were taken due to order or liquidity manipulation. To protect user interests, the platform banned the market maker from operating on the exchange and confiscated its funds, which will be directed towards compensating affected GPS and SHELL users.
According to a statement, project representatives will later announce the details of the payouts.
Binance likely blocked the Chinese company Whisper. The founder of the trading platform, Changpeng Zhao, shared a tweet by analyst Kuai Dong regarding its involvement.
GoPlus 和 Myshell 这波事件，好像兜出来了个陈年往事。
核心人物 May Liu（飘飘），曾是上海币圈 Spark Digital Capital 的创始人，与当时几大华人 VC 不同，主要借着 VC 的名义，做的是市场外包 + FA 的事情，因此很多 VC 花了真金白金，在 Spark Digital Capital 的忽悠下，投资接盘了项目，但…
— AB Kuai.Dong (@_FORAB) March 9, 2025
According to the expert, the scheme began with the venture company Spark Digital Capital. Initially, the firm provided projects with financial support and market making in exchange for free tokens.
However, with increasing competition in 2021-2022, this approach lost popularity. Spark changed its strategy and launched the Web3Port service for deals and attracting venture funds in exchange for 1-3% free tokens.
According to Dong, the new model proved insufficiently profitable. Web3Port then founded Whisper. This entity allegedly disguised itself as a liquidity provider to sell tokens remaining with the team. The ultimate buyers of these assets were retail investors on Binance, the expert claimed.
Last month, SMS scammers targeted Binance users, citing the risk of a hack by Lazarus hackers.