According to Cointelegraph, Binance co-founder He Yi and market maker DWF Labs have denied involvement after the Wall Street Journal made new allegations of market manipulation.
On May 9, He Yi described the media coverage in a post on X as “greatly increasing our exposure and saving us a lot of marketing budget.” However, the co-founder denied all the allegations made against Binance, writing:
“I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon that some mainstream media articles are increasingly driven by emotions and bias rather than facts. For example, a complaint from a former employee might form the basis of an article, while the fact that Binance actively assisted law enforcement agencies in investigating and arresting the mastermind behind Zkasino (as a fact) is not considered worthy of reporting.”
In a similar post the same day, DWF Labs said the allegations were “baseless and misrepresent the facts” and that the company “operates with the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and ethics, and we remain committed to supporting you and our 700+ partners in the crypto ecosystem.”
Earlier on May 9, a report from the Wall Street Journal stated that DWF Labs, one of Binance’s largest trading clients, had engaged in market manipulation, wash trading, and inflated volumes through transactions with crypto projects, totaling up to $300 million. After the exchange’s monitoring team recommended delisting the client, Binance allegedly sided with DWF Labs and fired the investigators, citing insufficient evidence for the allegations.
“We confirm our rigorous market surveillance program [and] do not tolerate market abuse,” He Yi commented. “In the past three years, we have removed nearly 355,000 users with over $2.5 trillion in trading volume for violating our terms of use,” he added, continuing: “Competition among market makers is fierce, and it is the job of our investigation team to remain neutral and view the evidence without any bias, including bias that may come from allegations by market makers against their competitors.”
DWF Labs is a well-known trading company in the crypto industry. Founded in 2021 by Andrei Grachev, the company invests in promising projects and provides long-term financial support.