Musk, Binance Founder Reject Fake Post on Exchange

Elon Musk and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao rejected a fabricated X post that attributed criticism of Binance to Musk. The post claimed Binance controlled 80% of the cryptocurrency market and urged users to withdraw their funds.

An X account circulated the post on November 7. Zhao identified the claim as false, while Musk replied, “Yeah. I never wrote anything like that. This is made up.” The 80% market-share figure was not verified, and Musk did not endorse the post or its call for withdrawals.

The post followed a public exchange between Musk and Zhao after Binance’s reported October 29 security breach, which was valued at about $6.3 billion across blockchain wallets. The incident was attributed to a compromised laptop, although private keys were reportedly not exposed. Binance reportedly froze about $3 billion in assets and planned to fund reimbursements through company resources and its Secure Asset Fund for Users, known as SAFU.

Before the reported breach, Zhao warned Binance users about suspicious emails and links. Musk responded with laughing and fire emojis. On October 30, Musk wrote, “Everyday is Zeroday,” referring to software vulnerabilities.

Zhao later referred to Binance’s reported $500 million contribution to Musk’s 2022 purchase of Twitter, now known as X. He wrote that the SpaceX shares received in return were worth more than $1 billion.

On November 6, Musk posted a red-tinted image depicting Zhao sleeping after Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus joked about checking cryptocurrency prices. Zhao replied with a cartoon showing a character struck in the knee by an arrow.

The latest exchange focused on a post falsely attributed to Musk. It followed reports of large cryptocurrency outflows from Binance, including the reported movement of 28,316 bitcoin from the exchange. The available information does not establish a connection between those movements and the fabricated X post.

Reviewed and fact-checked by Alex Panasenko on November 7.