Binance Bans Market Maker Linked to GoPlus Security and MyShell After Detecting Trading Irregularities

According to a Mar. 9 announcement on Binance's official blog, the exchange has terminated the entity from market-making activities and confiscated its proceeds

Binance has banned a market maker linked to GoPlus Security (GPS) and MyShell (SHELL) after detecting trading irregularities.

The exchange has terminated the entity from market-making activities and confiscated its proceeds to compensate affected users, according to a Mar. 9 announcement on Binance’s official blog. The details of the compensation plan will be announced later by the respective projects.

Market makers are companies or people who consistently place buy and sell orders to ensure smooth trading and lower price volatility. However, unethical market-making practices, such as order book manipulation, can distort prices or give unfair benefits to market makers.

The market maker in question was found to have broken Binance’s rules, which include maintaining a fair order book with balanced buy and sell orders, ensuring adequate liquidity, and preventing disruptive trading behavior. To protect user interests and market integrity, Binance shut down the entity.

Following the announcement, investor uncertainty caused GPS to drop more than 14%, while SHELL has since recovered after declining 4%. Binance has reaffirmed its commitment to enforcing stringent adherence to trading standards by all market participants and to taking appropriate action against those who do not comply.

This action is a part of Binance’s larger initiative to improve accountability and transparency. Users can now vote on token listings and delistings, thanks to a new governance model that the exchange introduced on Mar. 7. Binance users holding at least 0.01 BNB will be able to influence which projects are listed or removed.

Binance has also added several listing features, including pre-market trading for certain tokens, direct spot listings, and Launchpool farming incentives. According to the exchange, it doesn’t impose listing fees and will let users know when projects allocate marketing budgets for their listing. Such funds will then be given back to users in the form of airdrops.

Regarding the current state of the cryptocurrency sector, Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, noted in a Mar. 10 post on X that too much money is pursuing short-term gains rather than assisting ethical teams aimed at long-term growth. He stressed the need for patience and strategic investment for long-term success in the cryptocurrency industry.