OKX CEO accuses Binance marketing campaign of triggering October's crypto market flash crash.

PANews reported on January 31 that OKX CEO Star published an article on the X platform stating that the October 10th flash crash in the crypto market was not accidental, but rather stemmed from irresponsible marketing activities by certain companies (such as Binance), which permanently altered the market's microstructure, causing damage exceeding that of the FTX crash. Star believes that Binance launched a temporary user acquisition campaign offering USDe a 12% APY (annualized yield) and allowing USDe to be used as collateral, treated the same as USDT/USDC, with no effective limit. Users were encouraged to convert USDT/USDC to USDe to earn returns, but the risks were not fully disclosed. From a user's perspective, USDe appears no different from traditional stablecoins, but the actual risks are higher.

Users created artificially high APYs of 24%, 36%, or even 70%+ by repeatedly converting USDe to USDT as collateral, and these yields were widely considered "low-risk" simply because they were offered by large platforms. Systemic risk accumulated rapidly in the global crypto market. At that time, even small market shocks were enough to trigger a collapse. As market volatility intensified, USDe quickly decoupled. A chain of liquidations followed, and deficiencies in the risk management of assets like WETH and BNSOL further exacerbated the crash. Some tokens plummeted to near-zero trading prices. The damage to global users and companies, including OKX clients, was severe, and recovery will take time.