Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng has firmly rejected claims that the cryptocurrency exchange was responsible for the massive market liquidation event on October 10, 2026, which wiped out approximately $19 billion in leveraged positions. Speaking at CoinDesk's Consensus Hong Kong conference, Teng attributed the crash to global macroeconomic and geopolitical shocks, specifically pointing to escalating tensions between the United States and China.
The catalyst for the selloff, according to Teng, was the announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump of plans to impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods, coupled with proposed export controls on software technologies. China's retaliatory move to tighten controls on rare earth metals—critical for advanced manufacturing—further flipped market sentiment. Teng emphasized that these developments led to declines across multiple asset classes, noting that the U.S. equity market lost $1.5 trillion in value on the same day.
The liquidation event was severe and widespread. Data from Coinglass indicated that over 1.6 million traders were liquidated within a 24-hour period, with more than $7 billion in positions closed in less than one hour. Teng stated that 75% of the liquidations occurred around 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, coinciding with two isolated technical disruptions: a temporary stablecoin de-pegging and slowed asset transfers on certain platforms. On Binance, the stablecoin USDe dropped to $0.65 during the turmoil, triggering further forced liquidations in liquid staking derivatives, alternative layer-1 tokens, and derivatives markets. Total perpetual futures open interest on major exchanges plunged 43%, from $217 billion to $123 billion.
Teng vehemently denied Binance's culpability, stating, "Binance did not cause the crypto market liquidation event." He argued that the liquidations happened simultaneously across both centralized and decentralized exchanges and that there were no abnormal withdrawal patterns from Binance during the event. He highlighted that Binance provided support to affected users, a contrast he drew with other platforms that did not offer similar assistance.
Despite the crash, which saw Bitcoin fall from an all-time high of $125,000 earlier that week to below $100,000 in October, Teng expressed long-term optimism. He acknowledged that retail interest has cooled but stressed that institutional deployment remains strong. He also praised the positive impact of U.S. regulatory clarity, citing that the market capitalization of stablecoins grew by 50% in the year following the passage of the GENIUS Act.
