Former Gate exchange employee @priscilla_arkI posted on Twitter, questioning the correlation between the old employer's deposit address and North Korean hackers, which also corresponds to our previous report confirming North Korean hackers' involvement in the ETH theft case at Upbit exchange. Another incident is that users found that FLOKI borrowed on Gate cannot be withdrawn at all, questioning whether the exchange actually has sufficient tokens, essentially trading air.
(South Korea's national investigation: Upbit exchange's 340,000 ETH theft case related to North Korean hackers)
Former Gate employee questions the old employer's ties to North Korean hackers
The FBI announced in August 2023 six Bitcoin addresses related to North Korean hackers, and @priscilla_arkI indicated that Gate's deposit address 14p5tb7FQNZjr6duigpNuNjoLuSvTPskM4 interacted with one of these addresses in June this year and even used that address to allow his users to deposit funds in November. She questioned Gate's disregard for on-chain rules, allowing users' money to be involved in illicit activities.
However, it is necessary to reveal that @priscilla_arkI currently seems to be working at another exchange, XT.
In response, Gate replied: "We have been communicating with users from the beginning and are actively cooperating with relevant law enforcement and regulatory agencies, hoping that this matter can be resolved quickly. As for the false accusations made by users on public platforms, the burden of proof lies with the other party. It's freedom of speech, and we will not interfere with others' rights to speak. However, everyone must be responsible for their own statements. Additionally, Gate has been established for 11 years, and the platform places a very high emphasis on compliance, risk control, and anti-money laundering work, with corresponding monitoring systems in place and strictly enforced."
FLOKI cannot withdraw funds, Gate's reserves are in doubt
Previously, we reported on the lending liquidation incident at OKX exchange, which was due to the meme coin Simon's Cat on the BNB Chain needing to airdrop to FLOKI holders, hence the demand for borrowing FLOKI at the exchange. Beneath the post of the involved party CryptoWilson, it seems a Gate employee left a comment advertising their own exchange, but this comment was also replied to by CryptoWilson's community manager @johnhu432.
(OKX lending FLOKI inexplicably liquidated! OKX responds: Lending is a C2C market, and the platform only assists in matching)
@johnhu432 wrote: "Bro, I really don't want to talk about this. But since you brought it up, I want to ask you, your family indeed doesn't have this problem. But why can't you withdraw Floki? Are you using air to exchange retail investors' real money?" and attached a screenshot of Gate exchange's withdrawal message, which clearly states that the hot wallet balance is insufficient, please switch to another chain.
Indeed, asset reserves have always been a problem, as the cash flow in the blockchain world is too frequent. In theory, exchanges should have sufficient tokens available for users to withdraw, as these are originally their tokens. However, because of this, the blockchain industry does not have the asset reserve ratio issue like traditional finance, which has been criticized for inefficiency (traditional banks have a reserve ratio of about 20% of funds but are highly regulated, while the blockchain industry usually has 100% or even higher asset reserves).
Gate also plays forced liquidation? Official response has satisfied affected users
Coincidentally, KOL @liguagua also mentioned Gate's lending turmoil on Twitter, stating that a friend borrowed CHZ on Gate to obtain the airdropped PEPPER tokens, resulting in the PEPPER tokens skyrocketing by 2000 times. But the key point is that the exchange was not open for deposits and withdrawals at the time, using the borrowed CHZ to force-buy the PEPPER that had already risen 2000 times at market price to repay the loan. His friend lost $60,000 in this incident.
In response, Gate also stated: The platform has announced that deposits and withdrawals will only be opened after the airdrop is completed; the risk of trading new coins is comparatively high, and the platform cannot predict market price fluctuations. In this unusual market situation, we have rolled back related transactions, and affected users have already received perfect resolutions. This is regarding the rollback of the PEPPER/USDT market abnormal trading announcement.
This article claims that Gate's lending system is exploiting users, with former employees having ties to North Korean hackers, Gate's official response first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.
