Crypto exchange Binance saw massive outflows from its platform on Monday following a confusing statement regarding the state of the colossal exchange’s reserves.
Data from Nansen reported by CoinDesk on Monday shows that Binance recorded $902 million worth of outflows over 24 hours, exceeding all other centralized exchanges over the same period. The outflows from Binance were nearly nine times as large as the second largest outflow seen on the day.
The withdrawals may have stemmed from concerns over the state of the exchange’s solvency, with many calling into question Binance’s “Proof-of-Reserves” statement released last week. A number of exchanges have been issuing similar statements as they aim to shore up user trust in the wake of the FTX exchange’s collapse last month. Binance’s statement, however, drew criticism for its failure to include any liabilities.
Why get an attestation from an accounting firm and only show assets but not liabilities? This accounting should be trivial.
Why call it an audit, when the audit firm states it is not?
You state you have no liabilities with counterparties. What about against your own books?
— Dylan LeClair 🟠 (@DylanLeClair_) December 12, 2022
Binance’s outflows weren’t exclusively dominated by retail investors. Nansen’s Andrew Thurman shared data showing large redemptions made by market makers as well. Jump Crypto withdrew $146 million from Binance over the last week, while Wintermute pulled $300 million in a single day.
“Normally Jump has massive inflows/outflows to exchanges This time is different — Jump has redeemed $245 million in BUSD on the month, $106 million in the past week, and $30 million in the past 24 hours,” said Thurman in a tweet.
In his view, Jump looked to be “working very hard to cash out & not get burned again.”
While the scale of outflows would normally be concerning from a liquidity perspective, crypto market analysts were largely unfazed by Monday’s withdrawals. Conor Ryder, a research analyst from market data provider Kaiko, commented that the depth of Binance’s Bitcoin order book was largely unchanged.
Definitely one to keep an eye on, but so far no change in BTC liquidity on Binance, despite withdrawals from some of the biggest market makers https://t.co/qru2YbP35K pic.twitter.com/UnGzEKWRPW
— Conor Ryder (@ConorRyder) December 12, 2022
These sentiments were echoed by analysts at blockchain data platform Arkham Intelligence, who told CoinDesk that the outflow “doesn’t seem notably anomalous” considering Binance appears to hold $64 billion worth of assets.