Binance co-founder, Yi He and market maker DWF Labs deny involvement in market manipulation amid new allegations from The Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street Journal has recently published fresh allegations of market manipulation; in response, Yi He, co-founder of Binance, and DWF Labs, a market maker, have denied involvement.
He characterized the media report in an X post dated May 9 as an event that “substantially increased our exposure and saved us a substantial amount of marketing budget.” Nevertheless, the co-founder refuted every allegation against Binance in a written statement.
“I have noticed an interesting phenomenon where some mainstream media articles are increasingly driven by emotions and biases rather than facts. For example, the complaints of former employees can become the basis of an article, while Binance’s proactive assistance to law enforcement agencies in investigating and apprehending the mastermind behind Zkasino (as a matter of fact) is not deemed worthy of reporting.”
DWF Labs stated in a similar post on the same day that the allegations were “baseless and a fabrication of the facts” and that the company “continues to support you and our more than 700 partners throughout the cryptocurrency ecosystem by the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and ethics.”
A Wall Street Journal article from earlier on May 9th alleged that DWF Labs, one of the largest trading clients of Binance, engaged in $300 million worth of market manipulation, wash trading, and inflated trading volumes via transactions with crypto projects.
Following the recommendation of the exchange’s surveillance team to de-board the client, Binance purportedly adopted the position of DWF Labs and terminated the investigator, citing inadequate evidence to support the allegation.
We affirm our strict market surveillance program [and] do not tolerate market abuse,” He commented. “Over the last three years, we have offboarded nearly 355,000 users with a transaction volume of more than $2.5 trillion for violating our terms of use,”
He added, continuing: “Market maker competition is fierce, and our investigation team’s job is to be neutral and look at the evidence without any bias, including bias that might come from market-making firms’ claims against their competitors.”
DWF Labs is a notable trading firm in the cryptocurrency industry. The company, established in 2021 by Andrei Grachev, invests in promising ventures and offers long-term financial support.
