Crypto exchange Binance was forced to suspend all spot trading on Friday following the discovery of a technical glitch.
At about 11:58UTC, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said an initial analysis revealed that the matching engine had a bug on a trailing stop order.
Binance Spot Trading Resumes After Two-Hour Blackout
He added that deposits and trading were suspended as a standard procedure because the state of the matching engine affects the amount of funds available for withdrawals.
Zhao revealed that Binance’s Engine 1 was back online after a malfunction. He said the exchange only spotted the bug 57 minutes into its hourly engine snapshot, meaning reconciliations were delayed. Because matching engines operate sequentially, previous orders affect future orders, the CEO explained.
At 13:25UTC, CZ said that trading would resume in one hour. By then, Binance had re-enabled deposits and internal transfers.
Forty minutes later, Zhao confirmed that the exchange would resume trading at 14:00UTC. Withdrawals would follow an hour after spot trading resumed. Trailing stop orders were temporarily suspended. Users with open trailing stop orders would receive a push notification and an email.
Following the initial announcement, Bitcoin fell 2.2% from $28,073 to about $27,456. It has since recovered to $28,068.
Ethereum also fell 3% from $1,789.05 to $1,730. It has since recovered slightly to $1,765.50.
CEO Counters FUD
About four minutes after Zhao’s 11:58UTC update, pseudonymous crypto enthusiast CryptoViv tweeted that Binance’s customer service was better than banks.
Recently, the firm’s Chief Strategy Officer responded to claims by U.S. senators that the exchange was a breeding ground for illegal activity. Notably, his response did not honor requests for balance sheets of Binance entities, leaving question marks around the exchange’s financial health.
Zhao recently refuted claims in a Forbes report that Binance mishandled customer funds like collapsed exchange FTX. The article said Hillman’s claims that Binance’s record-keeping for wallets and user balances was separate made it difficult to determine the exchange’s solvency.
Disclaimer
BeInCrypto has reached out to company or individual involved in the story to get an official statement about the recent developments, but it has yet to hear back.
