Binance refutes insider trading concerns amid BOME frenzy

Exchanges • March 18, 2024, 5:05AM EDT

Published 1 minute earlier on

UPDATED: March 18, 2024, 5:09AM EDT

Quick Take

A wallet withdrew a huge amount of SOL from Binance and bought 314 million BOME ahead of Binance’s listing of the memecoin, according to on-chain data firm Lookonchain.
BOME’s price surged over 1500% within a few days after Binance listed the Solana-based memecoin.

Binance said today that a “large BOME transaction” is unrelated to Binance staff, following concerns about potential insider trading associated with the newly listed memecoin, Book of Meme.

“Upon receiving information about the large BOME transaction, we immediately initiated an internal investigation, and the results showed that the user is not a member of Binance staff,” Binance said in an X post.

The world’s largest crypto exchange added that it is offering a reward of $100,000 to $5 million to users who report relevant fraudulent behavior.

Binance’s statement comes after on-chain data firm Lookonchain wrote on X on Friday that a wallet withdrew 12,721 SOL +7.50% worth around $2.3 million from Binance and bought 314 million BOME at $0.0074, citing data from Solscan. “Does He know something we don't?” Lookonchain added.

RELATED INDICES

On Saturday, Binance listed BOME trading pairs — BOME/BTC, BOME/USDT, BOME/FDUSD and BOME/TRY — and the BOME price has since surged over 1500% on the exchange.

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About Author

Timmy Shen is an Asia editor for The Block. Previously, he wrote about crypto and Web3 for Forkast.News from Taiwan after spending more than three years in Beijing covering finance, entertainment business and current affairs at Caixin Global and Chinese tech at TechNode. His China-related reporting has also appeared in The Guardian. When he's not chasing headlines, you'll find him savoring hot pot and shabu shabu in a Taipei local haunt. Timmy holds an MS degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Send tips to [email protected] or get in touch on X/Telegram @timmyhmshen.