False alarm: OKEx crypto exchange is not moving funds to Binance

OKEx crypto exchange seems to be facing a difficult situation as it lost contact with one of its private key holder. However, the situation became more complicated when reports emerged claiming that the firm’s founder Xu Mingxing was detained by the police a week ago and has not returned since.

Now, Whale Alert reported a transaction moving 5000 BTC (around $57 million) from an address belonging to OKEx to a Binance address. However, there seems to be a misunderstanding here.

OKEx Crypto exchange’s complicated circumstances

The exchange claims to have lost contact with the person holding private keys to the exchange’s blockchain address. Subsequently, the company paused withdrawals while other activities, including trading, deposits, and derivatives remain operational.

Whale Alert reported two transactions moving BTC from OKEx addresses to Binance carrying 5,000 BTC and 3,500 BTC respectively. The two transactions collectively moved more than $96 million worth of cryptocurrency between the addresses.

However, OKEx had stopped withdrawals due to losing access to its private keys, so why would it suddenly move a huge sum to Binance?

OKEx is not the one moving BTC to Binance

The Director of Financial markets at OKEx crypto exchange, Lennix Lai revealed that the addresses moving the Bitcoin did not belong to OKEx.

This fact was also corroborated by an executive at blockchain forensics company Chainalysis. Chief Economist Phillip Gradwell reacted to Whale Alert’s post and stated that the transaction was mislabeled. He added that the transfer did not take place between OKEx and Binance.

Statistics on blockchain tracking platform ChainInfo proved that OKEx was not involved in these transactions. Data showed that while the exchange saw an outflow of over 6000 BTC, the exchange did not cause large-scale movements to Binance.

Meanwhile, a representative from the OK Group refused to comment regarding the situation stating that OKEx crypto exchange is a “separate entity from OK Group.”