Binance Responds To Collapse With Massive User Compensation

Binance announces a $45 million BNB airdrop following a crash that led to over $20 billion in liquidations. The measure aims to compensate losses of thousands of memecoin traders. This decision comes as the platform faces pressure over its crisis management, marked by technical problems and criticism concerning transparency.

The Reload Airdrop : an unprecedented compensation operation

This Monday, BNB Chain announced the launch of a special $45 million BNB airdrop, intended for more than 160,000 eligible addresses. The initiative, called “Reload Airdrop”, aims to compensate the memecoin traders hardest hit by the market collapse that occurred on Friday.

On this occasion, Changpeng Zhao, founder and former CEO of Binance, specified that “rewards will be randomly distributed”. The token distribution will be carried out in partnership with key BNB ecosystem players, notably Four Meme, PancakeSwap, Binance Wallet, and Trust Wallet, and should be completed by early November.

It was a $44 Million Reload Fund", air dropped randomly to people who lost money on memes on BNB Chain a few days ago.

Then someone added $1 million more, and "screwed it up". 🤣

Protect users. @BNBChain https://t.co/ZgafLDtqm2

— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) October 13, 2025

This initiative follows a record $20 billion liquidation, the largest ever recorded in a single day in the history of cryptos. Binance intends to demonstrate its responsiveness while regaining the trust of a shaken community.

Here are the main elements of this compensation program :

• Total amount : $45 million, denominated in BNB ;
• Number of beneficiaries : more than 160,000 addresses involved ;
• Distribution period : immediate start, completion expected early November ;
• Eligibility criteria : losses linked to memecoin trading during the market crash ;
• Distribution partners : PancakeSwap, Trust Wallet, Four Meme, Binance Wallet ;
• Allocation method : random, according to CZ’s statements.

Despite the turbulence, the BNB price reached a historic high of $1,370 on Monday morning. A strong signal, contrasting with the prevailing climate of distrust, which could indicate an attempt at stabilization, at least temporary, in an otherwise unstable market.

Outages, False Displays, Depeggings : Binance in the Technical Turmoil

Alongside the announcement of the airdrop, many voices have risen against Binance, accusing the platform of worsening market panic through technical failures.

On X (formerly Twitter), the trader SleeperShadow wrote on Saturday : “Binance shut down its system during a major market crash” adding that they were “unable to close their futures positions”.

I’m done with Binance. They shut down their system during a major market crash, leaving me unable to close my futures positions. It’s simply hard and painful to see liquidation that could’ve been avoided. @eliz883 😭💔

— SleeperShadow 🧲💹 (@Flywheel_King) October 11, 2025

Serious accusations, reinforced by anomalies observed on several tokens: altcoins like IoTex (IOTX), Enjin (ENJ), or Cosmos (ATOM) briefly displayed a price of $0 on Binance, while they continued to be properly valued on other platforms.

The second major source of tension is the spectacular depeg of the synthetic stablecoin USDe (Ethena), which fell to $0.65 on Binance on October 11. This decoupling was not observed elsewhere, leading Guy Young, founder of Ethena Labs, to denounce Binance’s pricing method.

According to him, the exchange used data from its own order book, “where liquidity was relatively lower” instead of relying on an external oracle. In response to these criticisms, Binance issued a statement on Sunday mentioning a “complete review” of the events. The platform claims its “core futures” remained operational and attributes the $0 prices to a recent change in decimal parameters, excluding any real drop of the concerned tokens.

The consequences of these malfunctions go far beyond simple display errors. Binance acknowledged that assets like USDe, BNSOL, or WBETH used as collaterals led to unjustified forced liquidations, causing losses for several users. The exchange claims to have reimbursed these losses up to $283 million. This episode raises questions about the reliability of the infrastructure of a centralized actor like Binance, especially in a context of extreme volatility and manipulation accusations.