Binance’s October 10 Defense at Consensus Hong Kong Falls Flat

Core Viewpoint - Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng defended the exchange against accusations of causing the "10/10" crypto crash, attributing the sell-off to macroeconomic and geopolitical factors rather than specific failures of Binance [1][2]. Group 1: Market Impact - The October 10 crash resulted in approximately $19 billion in liquidations across all exchanges, with the US equity market losing $1.5 trillion in value on the same day [3]. - The majority of liquidations in the crypto market (around 75%) occurred around 9:00 p.m. ET, coinciding with the release of significant macroeconomic news [3]. Group 2: Binance's Response - Teng acknowledged minor platform issues during the crash, such as a stablecoin depegging and temporary slowness in asset transfers, but emphasized these were not related to the overall market collapse [4]. - Binance supported affected users, including compensation for some, and reported no evidence of mass withdrawals from the platform during the crash [4]. Group 3: Trading Volume and Criticism - In the previous year, Binance facilitated $34 trillion in trading volume and served over 300 million users [5]. - The October 10 crash has led to ongoing criticism of Binance, particularly from rival exchange OKX and its CEO, Star Xu [5]. Group 4: Trader Reactions - Despite Teng's defense, traders on social media criticized Binance, alleging that the exchange manipulated conditions to force liquidations and deflected blame with the macroeconomic explanation [6]. Group 5: Geopolitical Factors - Recent geopolitical tensions, including fresh US tariff threats and China's rare-earth export controls, were cited as contributing factors to the market's risk sentiment shift [7].