VOXEL Price Scandal: Bitget Cracks Down on Market Manipulation
In a recent development, crypto exchange Bitget has initiated legal proceedings against eight accounts suspected of being involved in VOXEL price manipulation. Allegedly, the exchange suffered a massive loss of $20 million through these accounts’ unusual trading activities.
“These eight accounts are the main instigators of the VOXEL incident and have improperly gained more than 20 million US dollars from it,” stated Xie Jiayin, Bitget’s head of Chinese operations.
Bitget Sues Accounts Responsible for VOXEL Price Manipulation
In an X post, dated April 27, Xie Jiayin, Head of Bitget China, shared insights on the company’s legal proceedings over eight individuals who allegedly gained $20 million via improper trading activities involving VOXEL tokens. The exchange accuses these accounts of manipulating the price of perpetual futures contracts connected to VOXEL. The firm believes that these accounts belong to a coordinated group of professionals targeting system vulnerabilities for financial exploitation.
Further, Jiayin guaranteed that users who traded VOXEL during 16:00-16:30 on April 20 but had already withdrawn their funds would not be affected. The exchange plans to return all recovered funds from legal action to platform users via airdrops. Her X post is translated as,
Except for these eight accounts, all other users who participated in VOXEL trading on April 20 and have withdrawn funds do not need to worry. The accounts have been restored to normal and no responsibility will be pursued in the future.”
What Happened on April 20?
A technical glitch on Bitget caused an abnormal surge in the VOXEL token trading volume on April 20. The platform revealed that it identified an “abnormal trading activity” on its VOXEL/USDT perpetual futures contract on the day. Suspecting market manipulation, the exchange paused accounts.
Notably, the trading pair’s volume surged to over $12 billion, far surpassing the same contract on Binance. After halting trading, Bitget reversed the irregular trades to recover the profits. An on-chain analyst reported that a bot malfunction led to repeated trades within a narrow price range. This allowed some users to reap big profits with little capital.
Bitget has assured to recover the lost funds in VOXEL token and address the system vulnerabilities that caused the issue. Committed to transparency, the exchange has promised to issue a comprehensive report on the matter.
Recently, a group of investors filed a lawsuit against sportswear giant Nike, alleging the firm executed a ‘rug pull’ involving the RTFKT NFT project.
How VOXEL Price Reacts to This Development?
Following this significant development, VOXEL price, which stood above $0.08, plummeted to $0.072. As of press time, VOXEL is trading at $0.076, down 1.5% in a day. Over the past week, the VOXEL token experienced a notable dip of 5.9% despite a 7% increase over the past month.
Notably, this development follows Senator Elizabeth Warren’s call for an investigation into Donald Trump’s tariff plans. She alleged that the tariff moves are part of his market manipulation to favor his Wall Street donors.
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