Bitget to sue 8 accounts over $20M VOXEL token manipulation

Bitget is taking legal action against eight accounts involved in the manipulation of the VOXEL token, which led to an unusual price surge and market instability. 

The exchange’s head of Asia, Jiayin Xie, revealed in an  Apr. 27 post on X that Bitget would issue eight legal letters, targeting the individuals suspected of improperly gaining more than $20 million from the incident. Xie noted that the exchange plans to distribute 100% of any recovered funds from the legal proceedings to platform users through airdrops.

He assured the community that users who traded VOXEL between 16:00 and 16:30 on Apr. 20 but had already withdrawn their funds, would not face any repercussions. These accounts have been restored, and no further responsibility will be pursued against them.

In addition, Xie expressed regret for any inconvenience caused and stated that a full report would be made available shortly to give a better picture of the situation.

The incident unfolded on Apr. 20 when the price of VOXEL jumped by more than 200% in a single 30-minute period, briefly overtaking Bitcoin as the most traded asset on Bitget in terms of daily trading volume. During this price spike, which spanned from $0.125 to roughly $0.1645, trades seemed to be executed without the usual order book process. 

The incident was caused by a suspected bug in Bitget’s market-making bot, which resulted in rapid price swings and instant order fills that some traders took advantage of to make huge profits. In response, Bitget paused trading on the VOXEL/USDT contract and froze several accounts involved in the unusual trading activity. 

Bitget also announced it would roll back irregular trades and compensate users who incurred losses during the incident. While the platform has assured users that the incident wasn’t due to an internal failure or exploit, it has not revealed the identities of those responsible. 

Meanwhile, comparisons have been drawn to a March price manipulation incident on Hyperliquid (HYPE) involving the JELLY token. Bitget’s chief executive officer Gracy Chen criticized Hyperliquid’s response. Following the VOXEL scandal, critics have called her out for perceived hypocrisy.