In the last 12 hours Binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange experienced an unusual transaction which eventually led to system-wide maintenance.
There are no official announcements regarding the incident. However, data from Binance exchange shows an extraordinary transaction at the pair SYS/BTC, with an incredible price of 96BTC. On average, 1 SYS token trades for 0.00004 BTC, meaning this specific transaction was made for a price which is 2,5 million times higher.
Earlier, Syscoin reported on its Twitter account that they detected a possible issue with their system and asked all exchanges to stop trading SYS token.
We are investigating a possible issue on the Syscoin blockchain, nothing is confirmed but we have asked for exchanges to halt trading while we investigate.
— Syscoin (@syscoin) July 3, 2018
Couple hours later Syscoin confirmed that they observed “odd trading behavior coupled with atypical blockchain activity”
Binance took the system offline and announced that it will undergo a maintenance process. Two hours later Binance posted an update saying: “Due to irregular trading on some APIs, Binance will remove all existing API keys as a precautionary security measure. All API users are requested to recreate their API keys.”
Maintenance of Binance has been completed recently, with system came back online by 09:00 AM (GTM+1), just after Changpeng Zhao, CEO of the exchange posted a message on Twitter, warning against FUDs
Update: things are under control, just have some more work to do before enabling trading. Should be soon. Ignore FUD and bad news. Now is an good time to identify which news are bad quality (and remove them).
— CZ (@cz_binance) July 4, 2018
Later Binance has published the incident report regarding the irregular trading. According to it, at 20:18:00 (UTC) on 2018/07/03, irregular transactions were flagged by their internal risk management system, leading to the suspension of trading.
"We know in the course of making history, we will be tested again and again. We believe every test makes us stronger. And only if we fight together, can we move the industry forward. We thank all of our supporters, those who nudged us forward." - The exchange said, thanking its users for support.
The company will offer zero-fee trading option to the users negatively affected by the high SYS token price. Another important action is that Binance will introduce Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU). This fund will be protected in a cold wallet and utilized in such extreme situations.
By Nadya Astam