Suspicious Transactions on Centralized Exchanges: Crypto Reporter

There is a suspicion of foul play among some newly listed tokens in the blockchain industry. A trend has been observed suggesting a conspiracy or negligence involving some stakeholders in the cryptocurrency industry.

Initial reports from the popular Chinese crypto journalist, Collins Wu, revealed that an anonymous wallet address bought 6193.46 RPL 10 minutes before Binance released the RPL listing announcement, and sold them all 10 minutes after the announcement, making a profit of 55,400 US dollars. In the same report, he noted that all USDT and ETH used in the transaction were from OKX.

Wu’s report was corroborated by one of the directors at Coinbase, Conor by Twitter identity. Conor tweeted in support of Wu’s report, saying that he has observed a pattern that has been running for the past 18 months.

According to Conor, all the transactions that he observed were executed on Binance. Among the list he submitted are wallets that bought $900,000 Rari seconds before it was listed, only to dump the same a few minutes after listing. He mentioned another wallet that bought about $78,000 ERN between June 17 and June 21 last year and sold everything moments after the listing announcement. He also mentioned a similar scenario with TORN. Conor supported his post with screenshot evidence of said transactions.

These are yet observations as there are no direct allegations. It suggests a possible attack on the industry by a syndicate that may be gaming the system successfully. Transactions like these are considered malpractice and are discouraged by members of the industry. They are common with rug pulls where scammers deliberately dump on a project shortly after listing, and leave the community at sea.

It becomes a serious concern when exchanges appear to be part of the process, either by direct involvement or negligence. It is a call for concern and should attract the attention of the exchange.