Binance spot trading halted due to issue on trailing stop orders

Crypto exchange Binance has encountered major issues with spot trading on the platform.

On March 24, Binance suspended all spot trading transactions, according to an announcement by Binance’s official Twitter account.

“We are aware of an issue impacting spot trading on Binance. All spot trading is currently temporarily suspended as we work to resolve this as soon as possible,” Binance wrote.

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao subsequently took to Twitter to report that the initial analysis indicated bug issues with the matching engine. He noted that the bug was discovered on a trailing stop order and is expected to be fixed in up to 120 minutes.

“Deposits and withdrawals are paused as a standard operating procedure. Funds are #SAFU,” CZ wrote.

Initial analysis indicates matching engine encountered a bug on a trailing stop order (a weird one). Recovering. Est 30-120 min ish. Waiting for more precise ETA.

Deposits & withdrawals are paused as a SOP (standard operating procedure). Funds are #SAFU. https://t.co/mvtGQ3JlMA

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) March 24, 2023

As all spot trading, as well as deposits and withdrawals, have been paused on Binance, CZ continued to tweet to calm down concerned investors and traders. He referred to transistor engineers having to literally remove bugs in systems from time to time back in the 1940s to maintain operations.

A little trivia while we wait. Debugging. In the 1940s, when “chip” circuits still use big transistors. Insects often get in (because it’s warm) and short circuit things. Engineers have to periodically remove the bugs, thus debugging.

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) March 24, 2023

CZ also has argued that the issues won’t likely have any significant impact on the market, stating:

“When the biggest exchange halts trading, prices won’t move much. If it moves on smaller exchanges, when Binance comes back, our deeper orderbook will bring the price back, causing those guys to lose money. Traders know this.”

In about an hour after Binance publicly announced the issue, the exchange partly restored the issue, bringing one of the engines back online, according to CZ. “Engine 1 is back online. Still need more time to do reconciliations, and for other engines to catch up,” he wrote, adding that reconciliation will take a bit longer.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.