Report: Binance Hemorrhages $12B in Under 2 Months

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance’s losses following rival FTX’s collapse are reportedly worse than its CEO suggested.

That’s according to an analysis Monday (Jan. 9) by Forbes, which says that the world’s largest crypto company is “bleeding assets,” with $12 billion lost in less than 60 days.

Last month, Binance CEO Chanpeng Zhao tweeted that the company had seen around $1.4 billion in withdrawals — hours later, the figure had jumped to $3 billion — but said things had “stabilized.”

“Yesterday was not the highest withdrawals we processed, not even top 5,” he wrote. “We processed more during LUNA or FTX crashes. Now deposits are coming back in.”

But things did not in fact stabilize, Forbes wrote, with outflows accelerating at the company. Last Friday, Binance customers withdrew a net $360 million, the report said, citing data from crypto data firm DefiLlama.

Forbes writer Javier Paz writes that “by its own inertia,” Binance is nearing a point where this “soft run” on the company could worsen.

Reached for comment by PYMNTS, a Binance spokesperson shared a statement from the company calling Forbes’ analysis “poorly conceived,” and saying the publication’s figures were “off by billions.”

“Outflows are not accelerating. Ultimately, our users want to know that their funds are secure and that our business is financially strong,” the statement said. “To that end, Binance’s capital structure is debt free and also recently demonstrated its financial robustness by fulfilling $6B of net withdrawals between 12-14 December without breaking stride.”

Last month, PYMNTS wrote that investors and industry observers wanted reassurance that Binance was a different type of company than the failed FTX.

“”The leading cryptocurrency exchange and its founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, who played a key role in setting off the death spiral of the FTX enterprise, are now themselves facing increasing scrutiny over the opacity of Binance’s operations and the solvency of its crypto holdings,” PYMNTS wrote.

However, attempts to soothe the public trust have proven difficult, as Binance found itself on the defensive after FTX’s demise.

“Ignore FUD. Keep building,” Zhao tweeted recently to his eight million followers, referring to the crypto world shorthand for “fear, uncertainty and doubt.”

Meanwhile, Binance’s U.S. business is dealing with regulatory hurdles as it tries to acquire the assets of crypto company Voyager Digital for $1 billion.

As PYMNTS noted last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Texas State Securities Board, and the Texas Department of Banking have all filed objections to the move.

In its filing, the SEC asks for more details on how Binance can close a transaction of this size, how it intends to secure customer assets and how it would rebalance its crypto portfolio.

The Texas agencies objected to the sale because they said Binance.US and Voyager are not in compliance with the state’s law, aren’t permitted to conduct business in Texas, and treat creditors in different states differently.

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