Binance is now at the center of all things crypto after CEO Changpeng Zhao stepped down after the crypto firm agreed to pay a $4 billion fine to US regulators. This event has triggered outflows from the exchange similar to what happened before the FTX crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy.
Binance Outflows Cross $1 Billion
In less than 24 hours since the Binance CEO announced his departure from the exchange, users have withdrawn over $1 billion in crypto assets from the exchange. Data from DeFiLlama shows that outflows from the exchange quickly crossed $1.1 billion and are now sitting at $1.164 billion at the time of writing.
FTX had seen similar withdrawal trends back in November 2022 when rumors spread that the exchange was secretly illiquid. However, the difference between both exchanges is the fact that Binance has a much larger asset reserve than FTX did at the time.
Even though the $1.164 billion figure is significant, it pales in comparison to Binance’s $67.688 billion in assets. Even when the total value of BNB held, which is a token issued by the crypto exchange, is excluded, Binance’s clean assets come out to $59.156 billion. So less than 2% of Binance’s total assets have been withdrawn in the last 24 hours.
Binance also continues to lead as the largest crypto exchange in the world with spot volumes of over $8.28 billion. The exchange also commands the majority of open interest volume with $9.544 billion in open interest in the 24-hour period.
BNB Takes A Beating
Binance’s native BNB coin has suffered as a result of the exchange’s woes over the last day. Its price initially crashed around 15% when the announcement was made, and continued to trade low. There has been some recovery in the price since then, but it is still seeing some of the biggest losses in the space.
Even though BNB’s trading volume surged more than 50% in one day, sellers proved to be the dominant presence in the market. The sell-offs have pulled the price downward below the 20-day moving average, which can often be a signal for further decline to come.
However, the price does look to be stabilizing after recovering above $230 as bears failed to turn it to resistance. This shows there is still a lot of pushback from bulls, and once the market stabilizes to the new normal, BNB could resume its uptrend.
Richard Teng took over as the new CEO of Binance on Tuesday, and the market is waiting to see what the first order of business will be. A little bit of good news will no doubt go a long way in restoring user faith in the exchange.
Featured image from 36Crypto, chart from Tradingview.com