Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has forcefully rejected a viral claim that the exchange quietly booked more than 60,000 BTC in hedge profits on BitMEX during the March 2020 Covid‑era liquidation storm — calling the allegation “fake news” and technically impossible. The accusation originated from a widely shared post by Flood, CEO of fullstack_trade on Hyperliquid, which suggested Binance had hedged client flow on BitMEX and captured enormous gains during the crash. CZ responded directly on social media, writing that the story was fabricated and expressing frustration that people would accept it without evidence. “Binance never traded on BitMex,” he wrote, tagging BitMEX co‑founder Arthur Hayes and pointing to a key operational constraint at the time: “BitMex processes withdrawals only once a day,” a setup that would have prevented real‑time risk hedging at the scale alleged. Market observers quickly backed up CZ’s skepticism. Commentator Murtuza J. Merchant noted that BitMEX’s once‑daily withdrawal window in 2020 made it impractical for any exchange to use the platform for a live hedge of that size, and argued that “no entity would trap 60,000 BTC in a manual multi‑sig during a black swan crash.” BitMEX also said it has no records supporting the purported flows and highlighted that it has since upgraded from batched daily withdrawals to real‑time payouts as part of broader infrastructure improvements. Not everyone accepted the repudiation. Critics on social media — one user under the handle Broly — pointed to Binance’s involvement in high‑profile episodes such as FTX’s collapse and its earlier support of LUNA, suggesting the exchange has been influential around several market dislocations. The exchange of claims and counterclaims has been widely mocked as another round of competitive FUD, but the episode underscores how opaque cross‑exchange activity, historical grievances, and incomplete memories can quickly calcify into conspiracy narratives in a market still driven as much by screenshots and hearsay as by audited disclosures. Market context - Bitcoin (BTC) is trading around $68,280, with a 24‑hour range near $64,760–$71,450. - Ethereum (ETH) is sitting in the low‑$2,000s, with prediction markets clustering key levels roughly between $1,940 and $2,100. - Solana (SOL) trades around $78–81, roughly flat after a modest pullback from recent highs. Bottom line: without verifiable trading records or on‑chain evidence, the 60,000 BTC hedge story remains an unproven viral claim — and one that prominent figures in the space have publicly dismissed as implausible. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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