More than 19,000 $BTC left exchanges over a one-week period in early February, coinciding with a fresh wave of Binance insolvency rumors spread by X accounts claiming "FTX 2.0." The claims were aggressive: hidden balance-sheet holes, cease-and-desist letters to whistleblowers, shadow bankruptcy structures using new deposits to pay existing withdrawals.
On-chain reality? Binance's Bitcoin reserves stayed steady at 659,000 $BTC . Reserve movement clocked in at 0.6% — far below the drawdown levels that preceded FTX or Celsius collapses.
But the withdrawals kept happening anyway. A single whale moved $195 million off Binance on February 8. ETF outflows hit $318 million the week prior. Stablecoin liquidity bled $3.1 billion from the exchange.
The FUD campaign might be baseless, but the lingering structural distrust from October's $19 billion liquidation event is real. And every time a rumor surfaces, more holders pull coins into self-custody — tightening the circulating supply whether the scare is justified or not.
