Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals from largest crypto exchange Binance have passed $500 million in the past 24 hours as its CEO calls out โFUD.โ
Data from on-chain monitoring resource Coinglass shows Binanceโs BTC balance decreased by over 30,000 BTC into Dec. 13.
CZ: FUD is “thoroughly annoying”
The latest hotspot for fallout from the FTX debacle, Binance has joined exchanges seeing an exodus of user funds.
According to Coinglass, users withdrew 30,300 BTC ($515 million) in the 24 hours to the time of writing, this accounting for the majority of the weekโs 40,150 BTC total.
The abnormal behavior comes as Binance battles what its CEO, Changpeng Zhao (also known as CZ) blanketed as โFUDโ on social media.
As Cointelegraph reported, nerves initially became frayed after a report in Reuters suggested that the exchange would become a target of a United States money laundering lawsuit.
Zhao denied this, sharing a statement from Binance refuting the reportโs claims.
Thereafter, however, reports of major token withdrawals by Justin Sun, CEO and founder of TRON, exacerbated tensions.
Despite Zhao likewise taking critics to task and Sun performing a $100 million deposit back to Binance, users were quick to remove their own funds from their accounts. A temporary suspension of certain withdrawals of Binanceโs stablecoin, BUSD, were ongoing at the time of writing.
โFUD helps us grow, even though they are thoroughly annoying,โ Zhao wrote in his latest Twitter thread on the topic.
โYou 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.โ
The events mimic those from earlier in the FTX debacle, when exchange users en masse took custody of their funds. At the time, however, Binanceโs BTC balance actually increased.
BTC relief bounce targets $17,500
BTC price action continued unaffected by the Binance panic, BTC/USD gaining on the day to near $17,500, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed.
Related:ย โBiggest week of the yearโ โ 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week
Binance’s in-house token, Binance Coin (BNB), likewise recovered from a brief dip to near $250 โ its lowest levels since Nov. 22.
On social media, old hands appeared just as cool on the episode.
“If you’re looking to minimize the market impact on your BNB sales, I will happily buy one from you at $22!” popular trader Pentoshi joked as the “FUD” precipitated BNB/USD weakness.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authorsโ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
