OKX seizes 2M USDT linked to market manipulation

The exchange has related frozen assets and will allocate over 3 million USDT for an airdrop to eligible users who suffered losses.

OKX has seized 2,014,381 Tether (USDT) from five accounts suspected of partaking in “malicious market manipulation” of the Celestial (CELT) token and plans $3 million in restitution for affected users, the cryptocurrency exchange announced on Feb. 28.

According to OKX, Celestial developers on Feb. 26 announced the creation of a new blockchain game. Shortly afterward, the Celestial developers allegedly launched a social media campaign promoting the new game using OKX’s branding, which the firm says was unauthorized. As a partial result of the activities, the CELT token nearly doubled in value within two days time, before falling over 50% in the past 24 hours to $0.002129 at the time of publication. 

Responding to customer allegations of insider trading, OKX explained that the exchange’s subsidiary OKX Ventures invested $100,000 into the Celestial GameFi project in September 2021. However, the exchange stated that the CELT tokens it received were deposited into OKX Ventures’ accounts “without any transactions," and its investigation found “no evidence” of insider trading involving OKX staff.

Nevertheless, the exchange froze 714,381 USDT from five accounts suspected of market manipulation and claimed Celestial would return 1.3 million USDT linked to such activities that have since left the exchange.

As outlined by OKX, the firm will allocate 1 million USDT, along with 2,014,381 USDT obtained through seizure, for a combined restitution of 3,014,381 USDT to be airdropped to affected users. Users are eligible for the airdrop if they purchased CELT tokens between 12 am Hong Kong time on Feb. 25 and 12 am Hong Kong time on Feb. 28 and suffered losses.

Due to the complexity of the airdrop, OKX said it would publish details within the next 48 hours.