Binance wallets go blank during oversubscribed TGE event, sparking outrage

The crypto community woes on Binance continued into Monday, as the exchange’s wallet users reported seeing zero balances on their accounts. Thousands have shared screenshots on social platforms showing holdings of their crypto assets, DeFi tokens, and NFTs displayed zeros.

According to Chinese crypto market correspondent Colin Wu, the issue began around 9:45 AM UTC, when several users reported on X that their Binance Wallets had gone blank. Some of them were unable to access their transaction histories, perform swaps or transfers on both the web version and mobile app.

Binance responded to the queries shortly afterward, blaming the disruption on temporary lag issues caused by network congestion. 

“This information requires some buffering time to display. We are actively working on resolving this issue. Thank you for your understanding and patience,” the exchange wrote in a statement.

Binance problems continue with Wallet downtime 

Colin Wu, citing several accounts from social platform X, reported that the wallet downtime lasted roughly half an hour, ending around 10:10 AM UTC. 20-30 minutes later, the system appeared to recover gradually, with most users reporting their balances and event data resynchronizing after they refreshed or logged back into their accounts. 

Several traders were angry at the centralized exchange for the outage, including an investor going by the pseudonym Teraboy on X. The trader propounded that he had lost over $130 after being unable to sell his BNB holdings before its price fell by more than 3%.

“I’ve incurred a loss of over $130 due to a 3.5% drop in BNB, and I couldn’t sell because of issues with your platform. Who is responsible for this?” he wrote. “Once the TGE ended, people started selling BNB, and your system was unable to handle it. That’s sad, and we wallet users faced significant losses.”

Some users criticized Binance for allowing trading activity in BNB rather than stablecoins like USDT, arguing that volatility during the TGE event contributed to losses that could have been avoided.

Binance Wallet’s Yield Basis TGE event, which went live shortly before the outage today, was oversubscribed 60 times within the first five minutes of opening for investment. The exchange’s official account said the TGE initially targeted a fundraising goal of 1,918.47 BNB, but users collectively invested over 116,000 BNB, causing an uptick in transaction volume on BSC. 

The demand could be one of the reasons for the network congestion that affected users’ ability to view balances and interact with event data.

Binance said it plans to roll out new campaigns through its Binance Alpha platform, including the 40th Binance Wallet Exclusive TGE, featuring Lab (LAB), scheduled for October 14 from 8 AM to 10 AM UTC. Eligible users will be required to use Binance Alpha Points to participate.

Two upcoming airdrops for Whitebridge Network (WBAI) and Recall (RECALL) are scheduled for October 15 and can be claimed on the Binance Alpha Events page once trading opens.

BNB rebounds, CZ defends exchange in market plunge

Binance Coin (BNB), the native cryptocurrency of the BNB Chain, reached an all-time high level on Monday, climbing above the $1,360 level after last week’s market-wide liquidation event. Although the token has retreated back to $1,291 at the time of this publication, it is still 5% above its day-to-day lows, per Coingecko data.

The price surge comes on the backdrop of the crypto community’s criticism of Binance, which accused the exchange of manipulating prices and restricting access during volatile periods.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has defended the exchange’s operational transparency and dismissed claims of market manipulation. In a post on X, CZ argued that the trading platform lacks the advantage that many crypto projects with external market makers have, which helps them stabilize token prices.

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