Binance Says Assets Increased During Suspected Bank Run Attempt

Binance said assets on its on-chain addresses increased during what appeared to be an attempted bank run, after a wave of social media posts urged users to pull funds from the world’s biggest crypto exchange.

Co-founder He Yi described the episode on X as a coordinated withdrawal push from parts of the community. She said she still did not understand why deposits appeared to outweigh withdrawals once the campaign started, and she framed routine, large-scale withdrawals across platforms as a useful stress test for the industry.

She also urged users to slow down when moving funds, warning that mistakes on blockchain transfers are permanent once confirmed.

Some friends in the community have initiated a withdrawal campaign. Although the number of assets in Binance addresses has increased after the campaign was launched, I believe that regularly initiating withdrawals from all trading platforms is a very effective stress test.
I… pic.twitter.com/U8TyHDHeLH

— Yi He (@heyibinance) February 4, 2026

In the same post, she pointed users toward self-custody options, including Binance Wallet and Trust Wallet, and suggested a hardware wallet alternative for those who want added reassurance.

Binance Outage Sparks Renewed Talk Of Exchange Risk On Social Media

The comments landed after Binance briefly paused withdrawals on Tuesday, a disruption that revived familiar nerves in a market still sensitive to exchange solvency rumours.

The company first posted, “We are aware of some technical difficulties affecting withdrawals on the platform. Our team is already working on a fix, and services will resume as soon as possible.” Follow-up updates said the issue was resolved in about 20 minutes.

🛠️ @binance briefly paused withdrawals due to technical issues before restoring service within about 20 minutes, the exchange said on X.#Binance #CryptoTrading https://t.co/95c2xKnUdK

— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) February 3, 2026

The short outage quickly turned into a talking point on X, with some users drawing parallels to past exchange failures, such as FTX, and framing the withdrawal push as a stress test of Binance’s plumbing.

He Yi’s message pushed back on that narrative by pointing to net inflows, not outflows, during the campaign window.

Zhao Denies Bitcoin Dump Claims Amid Weekend Selloff

On Monday, Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao also weighed in, arguing that the market was recycling blame stories as crypto prices slid.

He called the allegations “pretty imaginative FUD” and rejected claims that Binance sold $1B of Bitcoin to trigger the weekend sell-off, saying the funds belonged to users trading on the platform.

Zhao also took aim at the idea that he could steer the market cycle through public comments. “If I had that power, I wouldn’t be on Crypto Twitter with you lot,” he wrote, after some users joked that he “canceled the supercycle” by sounding less confident about the thesis.

The back-and-forth played out as crypto traders stayed jittery and liquidity thinned across venues, conditions that tend to amplify rumours and accelerate crowd behaviour. It also revived a familiar fault line in the market, between traders who keep assets on exchanges for speed and those who see periodic withdrawals as the only credible check.

Binance has leaned on transparency reports to counter those concerns. CoinMarketCap’s Jan. 2026 exchange reserves ranking put Binance at the top with about $155.64B in total reserves, reinforcing its status as the largest liquidity hub in the sector.