Binance’s ecosystem token BNB achieved a new all-time high on Monday, surpassing the broader cryptocurrency market, which is still recuperating from $19 billion in liquidations over the weekend.
The BNB token climbed to a new all-time high of $1,370 on Monday, based on CoinMarketCap data, making a strong recovery following a weekend crash that resulted in forced liquidations across exchanges.
The surge occurred despite significant backlash from Binance users, who accused the exchange of exacerbating the market turmoil after technical issues left traders unable to exit their positions.
“I’m done with Binance. They halted their system during a major market crash, leaving me unable to close my futures positions,” stated crypto trader SleeperShadow in a Saturday X post.
Binance co-founder Yi He labeled these claims as false, attributing the main cause of the crash to broader market conditions.
“Based on data statistics, the percentage of forced liquidation amounts on the Binance platform compared to total trading volume was at a normal low level, indicating that this fluctuation was primarily due to overall market conditions,” she said in a Sunday X post.
While some of the platform’s “modules” experienced “brief lags,” Binance’s core contracts, spot matching engines, and trading API “remained stable,” she added.
Binance allocated $283 million in funds to compensate users impacted by these platform issues, as mentioned in a Sunday announcement.
Related: Ethereum layer 2s outperform crypto relief rally after $19B crash
Some CEXs are “underreporting” user liquidations: Hyperliquid founder
Adding to investor unease, some centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEXs) may be “underreporting” the scale of user liquidations, according to Jeff Yan, CEO and co-founder of decentralized exchange (DEX) Hyperliquid.
“Some CEXs publicly document that they significantly underreport user liquidations,” Yan noted in a Monday X post.
“For instance, on Binance, even if there are thousands of liquidation orders in the same second, only one is reported. Because liquidations occur in bursts, this could easily lead to 100x under-reporting under certain conditions,” he added.
Related: DeFi booming as $11B Bitcoin whale stirs ‘Uptober’ hopes: Finance Redefined
Wintermute transferred $700 million in Bitcoin before market crash
In the wake of the crypto market crash, some industry observers pointed fingers at cryptocurrency market makers.
Notably, crypto market maker Wintermute moved approximately $700 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to Binance just hours before the crash, as reported by popular crypto analyst Merlijn The Trader.
“Hours before the dump: Wintermute moved $700M to Binance. […] Then, bam. At $108K, liquidation velocity hit max speed. Buttons froze. Stops failed,” the analyst remarked in a Monday X post.
The trading patterns of market makers have been closely scrutinized since February’s $2.24 billion crypto liquidation event, which involved large-scale selling from various market participants, including market makers.
The crypto market downturns of 2025 have been “directly linked to TradFi events,” such as DeepSeek and Trump’s tariffs, according to Evgeny Gaevoy, the founder of Wintermute.
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