Macro Shocks Drove $19B October 10 Crash, CEO Says
Binance did not cause the $19 billion crypto market liquidation event on October 10, according to Co-CEO Richard Teng. Speaking at the Consensus Hong Kong conference on February 12, Teng stated the massive sell-off was a direct result of macroeconomic shocks, specifically new U.S. tariffs on China and retaliatory rare earth metal controls from Beijing.
Approximately 75% of the liquidations occurred around 21:00 UTC-5. The market pressure was intensified by two unrelated issues: a stablecoin depegging and a slowdown in asset transfers across networks. Teng emphasized that liquidations were not a Binance-specific problem but occurred across every centralized and decentralized exchange, adding that Binance provided support to its affected users.
Binance Cites $34T Volume as Proof of Resilience
To contextualize the crypto market's volatility, Teng compared the $19 billion in digital asset liquidations to the wider financial market's turmoil on the same day. He noted that the U.S. equity market alone experienced a $1.5 trillion plunge in value, with $150 billion in liquidations. He argued that the crypto market's reaction was a smaller part of a much larger global risk-off event.
Teng defended his platform's stability, stating that internal trading data showed no massive withdrawals from Binance during the crash. He pointed to the exchange's scale, having facilitated $34 trillion in trading volume for its 300 million users last year, as evidence of its robust infrastructure. "The data speaks for itself," he remarked.
Institutional 'Smart Money' Deploys as Retail Cools
Looking at the broader market, Teng acknowledged that crypto asset prices remain sensitive to geopolitical tensions and uncertainty surrounding interest rate policy. He noted that these external factors continue to weigh on the market's performance.
However, Teng offered a positive long-term outlook, highlighting a divergence between different investor classes. While retail demand has become "somewhat more muted" compared to the previous year, institutional and corporate capital deployment remains strong. He described this trend as "the smart money is deploying," suggesting that sophisticated investors are continuing to enter the sector despite the cyclical price movements.
