Binance clamps down on token trading after $19B crash

On Wednesday, Binance said in a blog post that it is tightening the rules around token trading after the October crash wiped out $19 billion in leveraged bets.

Binance said, “Healthy markets depend on real liquidity, spreads that reflect genuine supply and demand, and participants who play by rules designed to keep trading fair and orderly.”

Binance says market makers fill up the order books on its platform

“On centralized exchanges like Binance, they provide liquidity to the order books for various tokens, especially those with lower trading volumes for constant trading activity. On decentralized exchanges, market makers act as liquidity providers by depositing token pairs into automated market maker pools, which enables other users to trade without waiting for a matching counterparty,” said Binance.

Binance also said these companies often support token launches and early listings, which is meant to reduce large price swings at the start of trading. The exchange said, “The key role of a market maker is to maintain liquidity, stabilize prices, and support orderly trading by balancing buy and sell orders.”

Binance is also telling projects to tighten their own controls before and after listing tokens, and users to look beyond trading volume and check whether order books show real buy and sell interest across price levels.

It also said traders should compare price action with volume to spot irregular activity.

Binance then said projects must share their market maker details with them, including legal identity and contract terms, and must not coordinate with third parties to manipulate price or distort liquidity.

Binance’s global crypto market share crashes to 27%

Meanwhile, Binance’s share of Bitcoin spot trading had dropped to 27% by February, based on Kaiko data. Across all tokens, its share fell from 52% to 32%. In derivatives, which is its biggest money maker, its share also slid hard to 34%.

Liquidity also got thinner on Binance faster than it did on U.S. exchanges after the platform’s pre-Oct. 10 high. Kaiko data showed Bitcoin’s 1% market depth on Binance fell 55%, while U.S. platforms saw a smaller 37% drop. That metric shows how much buying or selling it takes to push the price by a set amount.

Even with all that though, Binance is still the biggest centralized crypto exchange on the platform. According to data from CoinGecko, Binance handles about $1.5 trillion in monthly derivatives trading, far ahead of any single rival as of March 2026.

CoinGecko says, “In 2025, Binance dominated the centralized exchanges scene with a 39.2% share of the top 10’s volume.”

Binance’s all-time high was 77% of global Bitcoin spot volume and 76% in crypto derivatives, but that was way back in 2022.

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