Today in crypto, Binance’s CEO denied claims that the exchange influenced the choice of a Trump-linked stablecoin in a multibillion-dollar deal. The fallout from the Balancer exploit deepened as on-chain data suggested a months-long attack, and Bitcoin’s drop weighed on market sentiment.
Binance CEO denies allegations company pushed Trumps’ stablecoin: Report
Richard Teng, CEO of the global cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has reportedly denied allegations that the company played a role in selecting a stablecoin issued by a Trump family-backed crypto business as part of a multibillion-dollar deal.
According to a Tuesday CNBC report, Teng said Binance “didn’t partake” in the decision to use USD1, the stablecoin launched by the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial business, for a $2 billion deal with an Abu Dhabi-based company, MGX.
The Binance CEO spoke amid scrutiny from many lawmakers after US President Donald Trump issued a pardon for former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, leading to allegations of corruption and “pay for play” politics.
“[T]he usage of USD1 [for the] transaction between MGX as a strategic investor into Binance, that was decided by MGX… We didn’t partake in that decision,” said Teng, according to CNBC.
The initial $2 billion investment by MGX into Binance was announced in March. However, the deal came under additional scrutiny after Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons and a co-founder of World Liberty Financial, said that the funding deal would be settled using USD1, allowing the Trump family business to profit from the transaction.
After issuing a presidential pardon for CZ on Oct. 23, Trump said in a 60 Minutes interview that he didn’t know who the former Binance CEO was. The president suggested that the Justice Department under the Biden administration unfairly charged Zhao, though the former CEO pleaded guilty as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with US authorities over the exchange’s Anti-Money Laundering program.
Balancer hack shows signs of months-long planning by skilled attacker
The onchain transactions of the exploiter behind the $116 million Balancer hack point to a sophisticated actor and extensive preparation that may have taken months to orchestrate without leaving a trace, according to new onchain analysis.
The decentralized exchange (DEX) and automated market maker (AMM) Balancer was exploited for around $116 million worth of digital assets on Monday.
Blockchain data shows the attacker carefully funded their account using small 0.1 Ether (ETH) deposits from cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash to avoid detection. Conor Grogan, director at Coinbase, said the exploiter had at least 100 ETH stored in Tornado Cash smart contracts, indicating possible links to previous hacks.
“Hacker seems experienced: 1. Seeded account via 100 ETH and 0.1 Tornado Cash deposits. No opsec leaks,” said Grogan in a Monday X post. “Since there were no recent 100 ETH Tornado deposits, likely that exploiter had funds there from previous exploits.”
Grogan noted that users rarely store such large sums in privacy mixers, further suggesting the attacker’s professionalism.
Balancer offered the exploiter a 20% white hat bounty if the stolen funds were returned in full amount, minus the reward, by Wednesday.
Crypto sentiment nosedives as Bitcoin drops under $106,000
Crypto market sentiment fell significantly on Tuesday, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index dropping by 50% to a score of 21 out of 100 to indicate “Extreme Fear” after Bitcoin (BTC) briefly fell below $106,000 for the first time in over three weeks.
It was the lowest score for the index in nearly seven months, having dropped to 18 out of 100 on April 9 as the wider stock and crypto markets fell in reaction to US President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs that took effect that day.
Bitcoin fell to a 24-hour low of $105,540 on Monday, sliding from an intraday peak of over $109,000, but had recovered above $106,500 in early trading on Tuesday. It’s the first time the cryptocurrency had dropped below $106,000 since Oct. 17.
The index has swung between “Extreme Fear” and “Neutral,” after the market crash over Oct. 9-10, when Bitcoin rapidly cooled from its Oct. 6 peak of over $126,000.
Analysts have attributed Bitcoin’s current dip to reduced institutional demand and blockchain activity, as well as concerns that the Federal Reserve won’t commit to more interest rate cuts this year.
