$7,000,000: the approximate USD-value of 11 SYS – the native coin of the Syscoin blockchain – after they were sold on Binance at a unit cost of 96 bitcoin (BTC). Yikes.
Yes, tracking at a BTC value of ~4,000 satoshis (sats) – or, 0.00004 BTC – on Tuesday, SYS/BTC suddenly spiked by some 240,000,000 percent in value en route to a daily high of 96 BTC.
At the then-USD value of $6,630 per BTC, these 11 SYS collectively represented ~$7 million, or, ~$636,400 each.
So, What Happened?
The below video tweeted by @BitcoinShark1 is a replay of the absurd price movement seen on the one-minute chart of Binance’s SYS/BTC market earlier on Tuesday:
We wonder that who bought #SYS #SysCoin for 96 #BTC on Binance 😳 #Bitcoin #Binance #CoinMarketCap #Pump pic.twitter.com/Hf1Rz7lrpC
— Bitcoin Shark! (@BitcoinShark1) July 3, 2018
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The following snapshot of Binance’s filled orders (i.e., when sell orders pair with a corresponding buy order) did the rounds on social media. Here, you can see that a buy order was filled for the purchase of eleven (11) SYS coins at a unit cost of 96 BTC; this tweet from @CryptOrca is further evidence indicating that indeed, 11 SYS were sold at this price. Worse still (in absolute terms), a whopping 13,152 SYS were purchased for a unit price of 1.1 BTC.
thats nothing bro. take a look at this.. pic.twitter.com/gIO6En1tp3
— Bull (@btc_bull) July 3, 2018
Block #8366 of Syscoin’s blockchain appears to be the one under scrutiny. Many originally thought it was suggestive of a 51% attack initiated against the Syscoin network, but that theory was soon quashed by a Syscoin team member, as his below tweet explains.
Syscoin is NOT under a 51% attack. The tx with 1.2 billion coins is someone moving 40 million SYS back and forth within the same block. Check the blockchain – it doesn’t lie.
— Keyare (@Keyare_) July 3, 2018
What Syscoin Has Said
At 2:11 PM (UTC -7) on Tuesday, the official Twitter account of Syscoin – @syscoin – issued the below tweet alerting the community of “a possible issued on the Syscoin blockchain.”
We are investigating a possible issue on the Syscoin blockchain, nothing is confirmed but we have asked for exchanges to halt trading while we investigate.
— Syscoin (@syscoin) July 3, 2018
Then, at 6:50 PM, they shared the below tweet revealing that their team had observed “odd trading behavior coupled with atypical blockchain activity.” And so, “as a precaution,” Syscoin asked crypto exchanges to halt deposit and withdrawal functionalities for their native cryptocurrency, SYS.
Whilst they added that a “detailed wiki post” will be published tomorrow, they made a point of stating that “after investigating the #Syscoin [sic] blockchain is safe.”
As a precaution we had requested exchanges halt $SYS deposit/withdrawal today after we observed odd trading behavior coupled with atypical blockchain activity. After investigating the #Syscoin blockchain is safe. We are asking exchanges to reopen. Detailed wiki post tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/NEypr531zi
— Syscoin (@syscoin) July 4, 2018
Binance Suspends Exchange, Resets API
Likely in response to the Syscoin incident – but not explicitly stated – Binance tweeted a link to a newly-published press release at 5:49 PM which declared that “trading, withdrawals and other account functions will be suspended” so as to allow their premiere cryptocurrency exchange to “undergo system maintenance.”
Not two hours later, Binance published another announcement entitled ‘Security Update: API Key Reset’. The Binance Team explained that, “due to irregular trading on some APIs,” they would be removing “all existing API keys as a precautionary security measure.” For all users of the exchange’s API, Binance requested them “to recreate their API keys.”
Then, under an hour later, a subsequent post entitled ‘API Key Creation Now Re-enabled’ was shared; alerting the community that “Binance has removed all prior existing API keys and has now re-enabled API key creation,” meaning that API users could “recreate their API keys from their user account center.”
Adding a sense of closure – at least from Binance’s end – their CEO and co-founder, Changpeng Zhao, retweeted the final Binance announcement with the comment: “Funds are safe.”
Funds are safe. https://t.co/YKxVceCWua
— CZ (@cz_binance) July 4, 2018
Given the seriousness at hand, the Binance leader noticeably selected an apt diction, and refrained from using the colloquial “funds are safu” expression made popular by this recent video by YouTuber, Bizonacci.
