Binance's BNB Token Saw Millions in Sell Orders Right Before SEC Lawsuits

In trading, timing is everything and it appears that some traders put in well-timed sell orders for BNB tokens, ahead of the massive SEC crackdown against crypto exchange Binance on June 5.

A surge in aggregated sell orders of about 125,000 BNB worth $37 million hit the BNB/USDT order book on Binance at 11:45 p.m. UTC on June 4 and 1:45 am UTC on June 5 in the lead-up to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) suing Binance, data from TradingView shows.

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BNB’s open interest, the total number of outstanding derivative contracts held by investors, also increased in the first nine hours of June 5 by nearly $30 million, according to Coinalyze, which also occurred before the 11:15 am news of the SEC alleging Binance commingled customer funds and operated an unregistered securities exchange.

A rise in open interest indicates new traders entering and creating new positions in the market, instead of closing existing positions.

The price of BNB, the native token for the Binance ecosystem that the SEC says is a security, dropped more than 9% from $300 to $272 in the hour following SEC’s crackdown against Binance on Monday.

Crypto traders who bet that the price of Binance’s BNB token would decrease before June 5 at 11:15 am, have profited heavily from the price action of BNB following the reveal of SEC’s lawsuit against the largest crypto exchange by trading volume.

An SEC spokesperson did not return a request for comment on the trades made before the SEC lawsuits against the crypto exchange.