OKEx Says Addresses Sending $960 Million in Bitcoin to Binance Are Not Theirs

A total of 8,500 BTC were flagged as being moved from crypto exchange OKEx to Binance over two transactions, with the first one being of 5,000 BTC ($56.5 million) and the second one being of 3,500 BTC ($39.6 million).

The transactions were spotted by large transaction monitor Whale Alert, which flagged them on social media and reveals it believes these two transactions are internal exchange transfers, and pointed out it’s currently investigating the situation.

While large transactions between exchanges aren’t uncommon, these two raised eyebrows as earlier this Friday OKEx suspended withdrawals from its platform as one of its private key holders has been “out of touch” with the exchange because they are “cooperating with a public security bureau in investigations.”

If the cryptocurrency exchange is unable to access its funds, it would be unable to move such large amounts to Binance. In its notice, OKEx pointed out that users’ cryptoassets are safe and that its functions other than crypto withdrawals weren’t affected by the situation.

The exchange pointed out that withdrawals are going to be resumed “once the concerned private key holder is able to authorize the transaction.” While speculation was abuzz on social media regarding the transactions, it seems these were simply mislabelled by Whale Alert.

Lennix Lai, OKEx’s Director of Financial Markets, pointed out that the addresses did not belong to OKEx.

His opinion was later on corroborated by Phillip Gradwell, Chief Economist at blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, which pointed out on social media while replying to Whale Alert that the transactions were mislabelled, and were not a movement from OKEx to Binance.

Data from blockchain monitor ChainInfo appears to corroborate these statements, as while it shows that OKEx’s net outflows were of over 6,000 BTC yesterday, it seemingly did not flag these large movements to Binance, or previously flagged movements that seemed to show transactions going form Huobi to OKEx.

CryptoGlobe reached out to OKEx regarding rumors that OK Group’s founder Star Xu had been “taken by police” and were told that OKEx is a separate entity and as such is “not in a position to comment on any actions or activities related to Star Xu.”