Rumors, FUD, real issues: it’s been hard to sort out what’s really going on on the Binance exchange these days. Beyond the media storm, is there really cause for concern? We take stock of the subject.
Binance: What’s Happening on the Largest Exchange?
Since the giant FTX fell, mistrust reigns when it comes to exchanges. And Binance, the world’s largest exchange, is not immune. The platform has indeed seen some doubts raised regarding his reserve evidenceespecially since the company that carried out its audit ceased to offer its services.
As a reminder, Binance has multiplied initiatives to prove its financial stability : the platform had published the addresses of its wallets in a public way, had fed its emergency fund, created a common fund with other companies, and carried out an audit to prove that it indeed held the bitcoins (BTC) of his clients.
But that will not seem to be enough. Several elements have once again revived the mistrust of the community. First with an interview with Changpeng Zhao, who seemed visibly uncomfortable with a reporter’s question. The video clip, shared widely on Twitter, shows a Binance CEO hesitant when asked if he could squeeze $2 billion out of his platform.
However, as several commentators have pointed out, Changpeng Zhao did not talk about user withdrawalsbut an amount paid by FTX to Binance, which could possibly be donated:
This @cz_binance clip is going viral but lacks context.
Question: Could Binance handle someone asking for $2.1billion back?
CZ avoids answering directly: “we are financially strong”
This wasn’t about customer deposits, it was about $2.1B FTX paid them.pic.twitter.com/fcpWX5BXvm
—Luke Martin (@VentureCoinist) December 15, 2022
The “FUD” around a possible withdrawal of 2 billion dollars is therefore based on a partially truncated context. Especially since Binance made $3.6 billion in withdrawals last week, apparently without any particular problem.
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Binance’s audit firm ceases services, CryptoQuant comes to the rescue
But the controversy swelled again this weekend, when we learned that Mazars, the company which carries out the audits of Binance, had deleted the page about the company on its site…and stopped providing services to crypto companies. A point considered worrying by the community, which shows the difficulty for crypto companies to show their credentials. This is in any case what asserted – wrongly or not – Changpeng Zhao, who explained that large auditing companies are not suitable for crypto companies.
In the meantime, the analysis firm CryptoQuant arrived, and claimed that Binance’s reserves were compliant, managed in the usual way, and incommensurate with those of FTX. She also pointed out that the platform was not overexposed to its own token, unlike FTX: its reserves in BNB correspond to approximately 10% of total reserves.
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So what to take away from all this? There are definitely a few areas of concern to watch out for, but that does not necessarily mean that Binance is in danger. We can thus cite the somewhat evasive answers from Binance, the unexpected departure of Mazars, as well as the fact that the company does not yet have a complete audit.
On the other hand, it should be noted that the addresses of Binance have been available for consultation for a few weeks already, and seemed from the start to correspond to the declarations of the company. A point that was also recalled by CryptoQuant, who highlighted the apparent health of Binance. The efforts of the largest exchange platform to show its credentials are also obvious, and the constitution of several reserves goes in this direction.
We will therefore leave it to everyone to draw conclusions, and we will remember that periods of strong emotions are not necessarily those that allow us to have the clearest vision of an entity.
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Journalist at Cryptoast, I fell into the pot of cryptocurrencies a few years ago. I am passionate about the innovative technologies that stem from the blockchain and I like to find the most crispy information to share with you.
Marine Debelloir
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