CZ & Binance Under Fire: Investors Demand Answers as Crypto Markets Tumble
When markets crash, the spotlight always finds the biggest player in the room. For crypto, that's Changpeng Zhao and his exchange behemoth, Binance.
The Blame Game Begins
It's a familiar cycle. Red spreads across trading screens, portfolios bleed value, and the hunt for a scapegoat commences. This time, the institutional gaze has locked onto CZ. Questions about reserve audits, leverage exposure, and the opaque interplay between Binance's native token and its ecosystem are back on the table. Investors aren't just watching the charts—they're scrutinizing the foundation.
A Stress Test for 'Decentralized' Finance
The crash acts as a brutal stress test, revealing the centralized pressure points in a supposedly decentralized industry. All roads, it seems, still lead to a handful of key figures and their platforms. The silence from official channels can be as loud as the sell-off, fueling speculation and unease. It turns out, trust is the most volatile asset of all.
Regulators are watching, of course—with the kind of detached interest a hawk shows a field mouse. Their notebooks are open, and this downturn provides fresh, vivid examples for the next round of compliance hearings. Nothing pleases a regulator more than an 'I told you so' moment served on a silver platter of market chaos.
This isn't just a market correction; it's a credibility crisis. The coming weeks will separate the resilient from the reckless. For Binance and its founder, the path forward requires more than weathering the storm—it demands unprecedented transparency. The market's memory is long, and its forgiveness is expensive. Just ask any traditional banker—they've been pricing that risk for centuries.
CZ bashed for saying ‘buy-and-hold’ is the best investment strategy
It all began when Zhao posted a message on X last weekend, in which he argued that most trading strategies fail to beat a simple buy-and-hold method. In the eyes of the crypto community, his remarks have entirely overlooked the current reality.
Not the first time, won't be the last time.
Been receiving FUD attacks since day 1. Will address it in the AMA tonight, look below the surface on why and how.
While our (self perceived) "competitors" focus on us, we continue to build and grow. 💪 https://t.co/g7bil6w5Mh
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) January 30, 2026
Bitcoin is down by a whopping 25% in the last 3 months and is now trading at $82,000, according to CoinGecko. October 10 was the last time the coin was changing hands above $120,000.
Moreover, according to price charts for tokens listed on Binance in 2025 and 2026, more than 90% of 221 Alpha-listed projects are far below their post-listing highs. That perceived disconnect has made traders lose their trust in Binance listings and what Zhao says.
“CZ I held all the tokens listed on Binance last year. Please advise,” one trader wrote, mocking the former Binance’s head advice.
Zhao addressed the criticism in a follow-up post on Thursday, boasting that “FUD doesn’t hurt his target,” and “his followers increased.” He continued, saying that FUD damages the entire crypto market, and insisted that neither he nor Binance sells tokens in significant amounts.
“I/Binance do not sell in any meaningful amounts. My selling = I swipe my card, and $5 worth of BNB gets converted/sent to the coffee shop. I don’t run Binance anymore, but based on what I know: Binance only converts a portion of its revenue to pay for expenses. They are a large net hoarder,” he explained.
Zhao also said Binance is under the scope of regulators worldwide, who can review every trade on every account. “Don’t be misinformed. Use your energy on positive improvement for yourself,” the Binance co-founder concluded.
OKX founder and Cathie Wood blame Binance for 10/10 woes
On Wednesday, OKX founder Star Xu wrote that “people had underestimated the impact of the 10/0 incident,” also saying it “caused real and lasting damage to the industry.” The total crypto market capitalization has fallen by more than 20% since the doomsday, dropping to around $3.2 trillion at the time of this publication.
Binance reported paying about $283 million in compensation caused by de-pegging incidents and related issues. The company said the most severe technical problems happened after prices had already bottomed, and that more payouts were planned for verified losses.
However, Xu believes Binance caused the volatility by supporting profit takers, insider trading, and Ponzi crypto schemes. Though he did not mention any names in his critique, it was clear to Crypto Twitter that Binance was the platform he was talking about.
“Some chose to pursue short-term gains, launching Ponzi-like schemes, amplifying a handful of ‘get-rich-quick’ narratives, and directly or indirectly manipulating the prices of low-quality tokens, drawing millions of users into assets closely tied to them. This has become their shortcut for attracting traffic and user attention,” the OKX founder claimed.
In a recent interview with Fox Business, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood revisited the October 10 turmoil. Wood said the ecosystem has been dealing with aftershocks from the forced deleveraging event for the past two to three months.
CATHIE WOOD: THE WORST IS LIKELY OVER FOR BITCOIN
Cathie just laid it out pretty clearly and says the last 2–3 months were basically the aftershock from the Oct 10 flash crash — a Binance software glitch that forced ~$28B of deleveraging across crypto. bitcoin took the hardest… pic.twitter.com/iOuLCzOHaG
— CryptosRus (@CryptosR_Us) January 27, 2026
She estimated that the unwind erased $28 billion from the industry, and linked the episode to a technical issue at Binance. “October 10th was, what in the crypto world…is the flash crash associated with a software glitch on Binance that deleveraged the system,” she surmised.
In a now-deleted X post, Binance CEO Yi He responded to Wood’s sentiments, saying, “Cathie Wood isn’t a Binance user. We don’t serve US Individuals or entities. No offense.”
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