Binance co-founder Yi He hit back at OKX CEO Star Xu after he criticized the process of setting up an account on the exchange. She did so by sharing a trader’s complaint about tokens being stuck on OKX.
The dispute stemmed from an erroneous transfer. However, both sides are now pointing to mistakes that left users unable to recover or sell their funds.
OKX CEO Criticizes Binance’s User Identification Model
The dispute began when a user on X blamed a "UID conflict" for losing money. A user identification code (UID) is a number that identifies each exchange account.
On November 7, Yi He rejected the claim, saying that every Binance user has a unique identification code (UID). The user had transferred funds to Binance Thailand, which operates a separate account system.
Star Xu then weighed in. In his view, user IDs belonging to the same brand should be globally unique, or the transfer of user IDs between websites should be blocked.
“The reason is simple: a UID identifies an account. If the same UID can exist on different websites under the same brand, while users are also allowed to transfer funds between websites using that UID, this could lead to the wrong recipient account being identified and funds being sent to the wrong place,” the OKX CEO said.
Tensions between Binance and OKX did not begin this weekend. On November 4, Xu accused Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) of evading responsibility following a recent hack.
He also criticized CZ for spending time arguing with Elon Musk during a crisis.
Who Is Responsible When Users’ Funds Go Missing?
Yi He responded the following morning. She shared a trader’s warning about using OKX’s DEX mode for tokens on the BNB chain.
The clash between Binance and OKX comes at a sensitive time. Binance is still recovering from a $6.3 billion cyberattack, and on November 7, it announced that CFO Kaiser Ng would be leaving the company.