The last few days have been eventful for the crypto market following a major crash on Thursday that resulted in the loss of $1 billion in market cap. In another unnerving development, it appears that Binance, the world’s largest exchange, may be in some form of trouble as a crypto analyst shares some insight on the company.
Binance To Record Heavy Losses If BNB Trades Below $212, Analyst Says
According to an X post on Friday, a crypto analyst with the name MartyParty painted a rather gloomy picture for Binance and its 150 million users. The analyst began by stating there was a reason the Binance Coin (BNB) is yet to fall below $212.
After Bitcoin tumbled on Thursday, BNB, like most cryptocurrencies, also plummeted in value, falling from $231.85 to $215.02. Although the token did attempt a market rebound on Friday, it soon fell again but found support at the $214 price zone.
There is a reason $BNB has not dropped below $212.
Binance has a $BNB backed loan liquidating at $212 down from $220 after margin was added in June.
Rationale:
– @cz_binance is in self preservation mode selling BTC from the bc1qm34lsc65zpw79lxes69zkqmk6ee3ewf0j77s3h wallet… pic.twitter.com/bVD5qzpiX4
— MartyParty (@martypartymusic) August 18, 2023
MartyParty believes there is a reason why BNB is gaining support at these levels away from the $212 price mark. According to the analyst, the Binance exchange has a BNB-backed loan set to liquidate at $212.
Initially, the liquidation price for the said loan was $220, but it was later shifted in June. Although the analyst didn’t reveal the exact amount of this supposed loan, it seems massive as he stated it could lead to a “fatal margin call” for the Binance exchange upon liquidation.
According to MartyParty, Binance is presently in “self-preservation mode” with its CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao selling BTC from a particular wallet to purchase TUSD, which in turn is invested in BNB to keep the Binance native token above $212.
In addition, this crypto analyst also made another interesting theory behind Binance’s supposed problem. He stated that US financial regulators are allegedly selling crypto holdings of the US Marshals Service in order to forcibly liquidate Binance’s loan position and kick CZ out of the crypto industry.
Crypto Community Reacts To Worrying Post On Binance
Following MartyParty’s post, there have been multiple reactions, with some crypto users siding with the analyst and nudging investors to dump the BNB token, saying that Binance is currently in a similar position as the FTX exchange in 2022.
The FTX exchange collapsed in November 2022 due to a cascade of events triggered by reports which stated that Alameda Research – FTX’s trading arm – held an unusually large amount of FTT – FTX native cryptocurrency similar to Binance’s BNB.
During the hype of the debacle, an inside source revealed that Alameda Research was quietly collecting loans from FTX, which were collateralized by the FTT token.
However, on the other hand, some other crypto analysts have disagreed with MartyParty’s post calling it false and only aimed at spreading FUD. A particular analyst with the handle Alice on X has described the whole report as a “bizarre conspiracy theory” as the loan in question was not taken out by the Binance exchange but rather by Venus Protocol, a lending protocol on the BNB chain.
For now, Binance, CZ, or the US government are yet to issue any statement confirming or denying the post by the analyst MartyParty.
At the time of writing, BNB is trading at $215.55, with a 1.59% decline in the last day, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Meanwhile, the token boasts a market cap of $33.16 billion and ranks as the fourth biggest cryptocurrency in the market.
