𝘉𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘯 𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯
A report from the Wall Street Journal has alleged that on multiple occasions, Binance ignored its own internal investigations about market manipulation in favor of preserving relationships with important clients.
In one case in 2023, a trading firm called DWF Labs, led by Russian Andrei Grachev, was making over $4 billion in trades on Binance per month. DWF allegedly offered a service to clients where it would create “artificial volume” and drive up the price of tokens.
One example described in the report is about Yield Guild Games, a token that DWF invested in. Grachev tweeted about it, DWF sold a huge number of tokens, and very shortly afterwards, the price of the token collapsed.
The report claims that two traders accounted for two-thirds of all Binance volume in 2023, which may have motivated the reticence.
This internal surveillance team also raised concerns about Binance’s own internal accounts trading cryptocurrencies on Binance, an allegation which was echoed in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) complaint that Binance recently settled.
Following the surveillance team’s report about DWF, the Wall Street Journal noted that the head of the team was fired, several other investigators were ‘laid-off’ as a ‘cost-saving measure’, and others resigned.
