Binance has issued a detailed response to claims that its platform caused the October 10 crypto market rout, arguing that the selloff was the result of a broader macro shock rather than a Binance-specific failure. The exchange said the move was driven by cascading liquidations from highly leveraged positions, liquidity reductions tied to market-maker risk controls, and transfer delays caused by congestion on Ethereum.
Binance links the decline to macro stress and shrinking order books
In its statement, Binance said October 10, 2025 coincided with a trade-war shock that hit U.S. equities and wiped out $1.5 trillion in market value. It added that the S&P 500 and Nasdaq recorded their biggest one-day drop in six months, alongside $150 billion in systemic liquidations. As selling accelerated, market makers activated algorithmic risk controls and circuit breakers, reducing inventory and pulling back liquidity from order books for a period.
Binance also cited Kaiko order-book depth data, saying BTC liquidity on most major exchanges fell to nearly zero or close to zero at multiple levels, with Binance, Crypto.com and Kraken listed as exceptions. In thinner books, forced sales had a larger impact on prices. Arbitrage and cross-exchange risk management were also disrupted, while Ethereum congestion slowed transfers between venues and made price gaps harder to close.
Most liquidations came before the reported de-pegging of three tokens
Addressing accusations that the liquidations were centered on Binance, the exchange said the most volatile period ran from 21:10 to 21:20 UTC. It added that about 75% of the day’s liquidations took place before the widely reported de-pegging of USDe, BNSOL and WBETH at 21:36 UTC. Based on that timeline, Binance said most deleveraging had already begun during the initial macro shock that started at 20:50 UTC.
The exchange said its core matching engine, risk controls and clearing systems remained operational throughout the event. In Binance’s account, the sharper price declines came from forced selling into weakened order books, not from a breakdown in its central trading infrastructure.
Exchange acknowledges two incidents and outlines compensation
Binance still disclosed two platform incidents that led to compensation. The first took place from 21:18 to 21:51 UTC, when its internal asset transfer subsystem slowed for about 33 minutes. That affected some transfers between Spot, Earn and Futures accounts. A small number of users temporarily saw balances displayed as ��0” in the interface, which Binance said was a display issue rather than a loss of funds.
The second incident ran from 21:36 to 22:15 UTC, when the indexes for USDe, WBETH and BNSOL deviated from expected values after market-wide order-book depth weakened and cross-platform balancing slowed. Binance said lower local liquidity, faster liquidations and slower capital movement across venues gave temporary price moves on its platform greater weight in index calculations during the stress period.
As of October 22, 2025, Binance said it had refunded $328 million to eligible users affected by the two incidents and launched a separate $300 million goodwill program for other impacted users. The exchange said the October 10 collapse was not caused by issues unique to Binance, while also acknowledging that some parts of its platform came under temporary pressure during the extreme market conditions.