Binance Says Altcoins Didn’t Fall to Zero — Blames UI Display Bug
platform Clarifies Cause of Apparent Token Collapse
Binance said a technical glitch caused several tokens to appear as if they had crashed to $0 during Friday’s crypto trade-off, prompting confusion among traders during one of the market’s most volatile sessions of the year.
In an update to users on Sunday, Binance said that IoTeX (IOTX), Cosmos (ATOM) and Enjin (ENJ) were among the assets affected by a “display issue” and not by any underlying price failure. Prices for those tokens on other platforms remained stable, suggesting the difficulty was isolated to Binance’s interface.
“Certain trading pairs, such as IOTX/USDT, recently reduced the number of decimal places allowed for minimum price movement, causing the displayed prices in the user interface to be zero,” Binance said. “This was a display issue and not due to an actual $0 price.”
Investor Takeaway
Market Crash and Liquidation Wave
The display error coincided with a sharp market downturn that erased up to $20 billion in leveraged positions within 24 hours — the largest single-day liquidation event in crypto history. Binance became the focus of trader frustration later than the meltdown wiped out positions and triggered cascading margin calls across derivatives platforms.
While Binance said trading systems were functioning normally, the coincidence between the visual error and the liquidation surge fueled speculation of deeper technical difficultys. Analysts said the scale of liquidations reflected the extent of leverage built up in the market ahead of Friday’s crash.
Speculation Over Coordinated Attack
Some traders argued the platform may have been targeted in a coordinated exploit. A pseudonymous trader known as ElonTrades said on X that attackers could have manipulated Binance’s Unified Account feature, which relies on internal price data rather than external oracle feeds. The trader suggested that differences between Binance’s internal order book prices and external benchmarks could have been used to trigger artificial price gaps.
Binance had announced earlier that it would migrate to external oracle price feeds by Tuesday, potentially leaving what ElonTrades described as a “window of opportunity” for attackers to exploit. According to his analysis, the incident caused Ethena’s USDe synthetic dollar to lose its peg, plunging to $0.65 and setting off a chain of liquidations estimated at more than $1 billion.
Binance has since announced $283 million in compensation for affected users who were liquidated during the depegging event, saying it is reviewing account data to determine eligibility.
Investor Takeaway
Calls for Investigation
The crash prompted calls for greater scrutiny of . Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com, said regulators should investigate the operational resilience of platforms that suffered heavy losses during the trade-off. “Events like these undermine confidence in centralized platforms and risk eroding trust across the broader market,” Marszalek said.
Friday’s turmoil was among the most violent in months, echoing the cascading liquidations viewn during the 2022 bear market. The swift recovery in prices over the weekend has calmed immediate fears, but the episode renewed debate over the adequacy of secureguards at large and the opacity of their internal systems.
For Binance, the incident adds to ongoing . While the platform moved rapidly to contain fallout and reimburse users, the event highlights the tension between growth and operational reliability in the world’s largest .
