Binance Richard Teng Responds for the First Time to "1011 Major Liquidation": It Was Not Our Doing, Smart Money Is Entering the Market

Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng publicly responded for the first time at Consensus Hong Kong regarding last year’s “1011” largest crypto liquidation event in history, emphasizing that the $19 billion crash was not triggered solely by Binance, but was a chain reaction across the entire market under macro shocks such as China’s rare earth export controls and 100% tariffs from the U.S. He also pointed out that despite weakening retail investor confidence, institutional funds continue to flow in.
(Background: Binance deepens cooperation with Franklin Templeton: tokenized money market funds can serve as off-exchange collateral, institutional-level plans launched)
(Additional context: Interview with Binance founder CZ “Rise, Fall, and Rebirth”: I am just an ordinary person, success comes from persistence and luck)

Richard Teng stated at Consensus Hong Kong 2026 that the crypto market liquidation on October 11, 2025, was not caused by Binance alone. He noted that after China implemented rare earth export controls and the U.S. immediately announced 100% tariffs on Chinese goods, “every trading platform, whether centralized or decentralized, experienced massive liquidations that day.”

Teng said that about 75% of the liquidations occurred around 9 PM Eastern Time, during which two unrelated and isolated technical issues occurred simultaneously: USDe stablecoin briefly de-pegged to $0.65 on Binance, and there were some delays in asset transfers.

US Stock Market Lost $1.5 Trillion, Crypto Market Much Smaller in Scale

Teng emphasized that the impact of the October 11 event was global, not limited to crypto:

On that day, the U.S. stock market lost $1.5 trillion in market cap, with $150 billion in liquidations just in the U.S. stock market. The crypto market is much smaller, around $19 billion.

This panic triggered by U.S.-China geopolitical tensions caused the S&P 500 to plummet in a single day, and with high leverage, the crypto market experienced the largest liquidation wave in history, with over 1.6 million traders being liquidated within 24 hours.

Retail Investors Exit, Institutions Enter — “Smart Money Is Positioning”

Discussing the current market environment, Teng admitted that uncertainty in interest rate trends and geopolitical tensions continue to pressure risk assets like crypto:

On a macro level, people remain uncertain about future interest rate directions. Geopolitical tensions and related trends persist, and these factors do put pressure on assets like crypto.

However, he also pointed out that retail demand has indeed weakened compared to the past year, but institutional and corporate deployments remain strong. Even in a challenging market environment, institutions continue to enter the space.

This means that smart money is moving in.

Binance’s SAFU fund also completed converting $1 billion into Bitcoin today.