$3M OKX airdrop, 1 hour due diligence on 3AC, Binance AI — Asia Express – Cointelegraph Magazine

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.

OKX airdrop after token trading fiasco

On Mar. 1, cryptocurrency exchange OKX  announced  that it would airdrop 3,014,381 Tether (USDT) to users who suffered losses as a result of the Celestial (CELT) token trading incident. On Feb. 26, Celestial revealed the development of a novel blockchain game, followed by extensive social media campaigns promoting the project’s alleged backing by OKX. Shortly afterward, the price of CELT pumped nearly 100% in two days before plummeting over 60%, after OKX clarified it had no affiliation with the project other than a $100,000 investment from OKX Ventures in Nov. 2021. 

“On Feb. 27, many influencers on social media promoted the [CELT] project by claiming that it was the “Son of OKX,” such actions were not authorized by the OKX exchange.”

After an investigation, OKX concluded that there was evidence of “malicious market manipulation” associated with the incident. The exchange explained shortly afterward that it froze 714,381 USDT held in five accounts suspected of market manipulation, and clawed back 1.3 million USDT from Celestial developers.

Combined with 1 million USDT of its own money, OKX will airdrop a total of 3 million USDT to users who purchased CELT between Feb. 25, 12:00 pm Hong Kong time (HKT), and Feb. 28, 12:00 pm HKT and suffered losses. The airdrop will be delivered to affected users within the next 48 hours. 

Although experts disagree on its supposed transparency, OKX has also decided to double down on its proof-of-reserves (PoR) model. On Mar. 2, the exchange stated that its upcoming PoR report would “enhance transparency by allowing anyone to download the full liability Merkle tree,” and that users can “verify all client deposits are accounted for” and claims it “guarantees solvency by comparing net equity,” via novel zero-proof methods.

In its most recent update, OKX claimed that it held $8.6 billion worth of Bitcoin, Ether, and Tether on the exchange. OKX’s next monthly PoR publication will take place on or around March 20.

Binance and AI NFTs

On March 1, cryptocurrency exchange Binance launched a novel AI product dubbed “Bicasso.” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), said you “can turn your creative visions into NFTs with AI” by uploading an image with a limit of 50MB and a description of the uploaded picture.

There is currently a waitlist as AI NFT minting was limited to a maximum of 10,000 collectibles. CZ has apparently taken an interest in exploring AI after popular chatbot ChatGPT reached 100 million users just two months after its launch. 

FTX Japan nearly completes withdrawals 

In the latest update published on Feb. 28, FTX Japan, the Japanese subsidiary of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, revealed that users had almost withdrawn all of their assets since withdrawals reopened on Feb. 21. According to FTX Japan, the exchange had 80 Ethereum and 28.48 Bitcoin left unclaimed, worth $793,000 at the time of publication, among other residual assets. 

Previously, FTX had disclosed that it held 6.672 billion Japanese Yen ($48.83 million) in users’ assets before regulators halted exchange in Nov. 2022 as part of international bankruptcy proceedings. As Japanese law required exchanges to segregate clients’ assets from that of its own, many users reported being able to withdraw their FTX Japan balance in full, albeit first transferring their account to Liquid Japan, a related entity. 

“We would like to sincerely apologize for causing great concern to our customers in connection with the bankruptcy of our parent company, FTX Trading Limited. We have resumed withdrawal and withdrawal services from Liquid Japan from Feb. 21, but services related to normal transactions have been suspended. Thank you for your understanding.”