Binance Co-CEO: On October 11th, all trading platforms experienced a large-scale liquidation event, and Binance's technical issue was not related to the market crash

Binance CEO Richard Teng told attendees at the Consensus Hong Kong conference on February 12 that the October 11 crypto market liquidation was not caused by Binance. Instead, the event stemmed from China’s rare earth export controls and new U.S. tariffs, which triggered large-scale liquidations across all centralized and decentralized exchanges that day. About 75% of the liquidations occurred around 9:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time that day, alongside two unrelated, isolated technical issues: the stablecoin USEe depegging and some asset transfer delays, Teng said. “The U.S. stock market lost $15 trillion in value that day, with $150 billion in liquidations—far more than crypto’s $19 billion,” he noted. On a macro level, uncertainty over future interest rate direction persists, while geopolitical tensions and other trends continue to pressure assets like crypto, Teng said. “What matters most is underlying development: Retail demand has weakened compared to the past year, but institutional and corporate deployment remains strong.” Even amid unfavorable market conditions, institutions are still entering the space—“this means smart money is coming in,” he added.