Justin Sun to Reverse $56M Binance Transfer After CEO Zhao Warns Against Potential SUI Token Grab

"Binance Launchpool are meant as air drops for our retail users, not just for a few whales," Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted after Sun transferred $56 million in TUSD to Binance.

AccessTimeIconMay 1, 2023 at 10:58 a.m. UTC
Updated Mar 8, 2024 at 4:52 p.m. UTC
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Tron founder Justin Sun tweeted on Monday that he has arranged a full refund of a $56 million transfer to exchange platform Binance after a warning from the latter's CEO against a potential token grab of the new SUI token.

After the substantial transfer made in trueUSD (TUSD) got flagged by Whale Alert early Monday, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao took to Twitter to say his platform has warned Sun it will take action if he used any of the funds to buy up large amounts of SUI tokens from Binance's Launchpool.

"Binance LaunchPool are meant as air drops for our retail users, not just for a few whales," Zhao said.

The SUI token, the native token of layer1 blockchain Sui, is set to take place once the mainnet goes live on May 3. On Sunday, Binance announced the SUI token will be available via its Launchpool, which allows users to stake their crypto assets to provide funds into a liquidity pool and get rewards in return.

Sun replied to Zhao's post saying his team was not fully aware of the "intended purpose" of the funds, which he says is used to "facilitate market-making between leading TUSD exchanges, thereby enhancing liquidity and trading volume, rather than participating in any exchange promotions."

"Upon realizing this error, we immediately contacted the exchange team and arranged for a full refund of the funds," Sun tweeted.

Later Monday, Binance tweeted it would reallocate the market maker's 278,752 farmed SUI tokens to its platform's TUSD liquidity pool at 00:00 UTC on May 2.

"We’ve discussed with the TUSD market maker and mutually agreed to refund their farmed $SUI back to the TUSD pool on Binance," the exchange tweeted.

Elizabeth Napolitano contributed reporting.

Update (May 1, 11:15 UTC): Adds detail throughout.

Update (May 1, 15:55 UTC): Adds grafs about the two parties' agreement to reallocate the farmed SUI to Binance's TUSD pool.

Edited by Sandali Handagama.

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Sandali Handagama

Sandali Handagama is CoinDesk's deputy managing editor for policy and regulations, EMEA. She does not own any crypto.


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