It should be noted that Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, due to which it is regularly criticized and disseminated not the most accurate news. For example, the case of Forbes journalists, who reported in late February 2023 that Binance was allegedly “shuffling funds”, which strongly resembled FTX, comes to mind here.

As noted by the publication, Binance had sort of shared cash collateral for trading positions with the dubious trading company Alameda Research, which was closely linked to FTX and had already gone bankrupt.

However, it later became clear that Alameda representatives had simply withdrawn their own cryptocurrencies that were on Binance. And that’s funny, because such functionality is the backbone of every exchange. However, Forbes was somehow unaware of this.

Is Changpen Zhao really wanted?

At the centre of what is happening is a well-known representative of the cryptocurrency community under the nickname Cobie. He has 759,000 followers on Twitter, although the Influencer’s account is currently private.

So, tonight Cobie posted an encrypted tweet. As it turned out later, it just contained a message that Interpol had allegedly launched a manhunt for Chanpen. The screenshot below shows Cobie’s tweet. Its current form was created by encrypting the original message according to the SHA-256 algorithm, which is also used in Bitcoin.


Why publish the cobie at all? It is a way for a person to record the fact that he has some knowledge. However, the decryption of the original publication requires a special key, which is set by the author. Accordingly, when the described event comes true, he can publish the key, after which anyone who wants to check the source can do so. Obviously, Kobi wanted to do the same to emphasise his own awareness afterwards. However, the information about Zhao's alleged problems with Interpol is purely a rumor, which means there's not much to brag about.


According to CoinDesk sources, the result of the transcript is as follows: “Interpol has issued a red notice for Zhao”. The red notice is a directive that the search, arrest and extradition of a suspect must be facilitated by all countries where the international organisation operates.

After the tweet, the value of the Binance BNB native token plummeted to almost $300. And while it’s a small dip in percentage terms, it was sharp in one way or another.

A fall of similar magnitude can also be seen on the Bitcoin chart. This means that the market still had time to react to the publication.

Cobie is one of the major celebrities in the cryptocurrency world, so his tweet got a lot of publicity. On top of that, lawsuits had already been filed against Binance and Zhao by the CFTC and two law firms the day before, making such an infomercial a fairly quick pick-me-up.

???? MORE INTERESTING STUFF CAN BE FOUND ON OUR YANDEX.ZEN!

A Binance spokesperson said that “the rumour is not true”, while Interpol officials have not commented on the situation. At the same time, the exchange’s head of strategy, Patrick Hillmann, left the following speculation on Twitter.

One of two things is true:
1. This is nonsense;
2. A law enforcement agent is illegally leaking elements of the case file via encrypted messages (a la QAnon) on Github, which is a criminal offense and probably much more serious news.
I’m betting on the former.

That is, there is little doubt in the blockchain industry that this publication turned out to be a duck. Perhaps someone wanted to play on the market reaction by opening short positions for BNB and other coins beforehand.

A little later, Cobie explained the gist of his tweet. In this case, he posted a hash – information that can only be decrypted with a single key or secret combination. In this way he wanted to predict the news announcement from Interpol. Again, had he published the key later, his subscribers would have been convinced that Cobie knew about the news in advance.

However, as Cobie claims, things did not go according to plan. And here’s why.

It seems that someone I was discussing the rumour with – several people are possible here – leaked the key in order to “cause a stir” at my expense, removing the context of the rumour and so on. Very dubious of the bruteforcing cipher theory, as none of them have been cracked, including the one I posted recently.

In any case, it wasn’t meant to be public information, so sorry. I’ll revisit the list of people I can trust. Since tweets like this only lead to bad things, I’ll probably do it much less often in the future.


A transcript of the post was published by another prominent member of the blockchain community under the nickname FatManTerra. He claimed that he allegedly cracked the encryption of this post by matching combinations, i.e. bruteforcing. However, this is most likely not true, as such a break-in would take thousands of years, if not more.

In this regard, Kobe specified that the encryption details were actually leaked by someone he knew who was aware of the situation. Accordingly, he will do it less often in the future, because today he received a portion of unwanted attention with a tinge of negativity.


The reaction of Binance CEO Changpen Zhao to the situation deserves separate attention. First of all, he immediately reported that the screenshot from the alleged Interpol website is the brainchild of Photoshop. What’s particularly amusing is that the account that posted it has already been deleted, which means someone really wanted to cover their own tracks.

Zhao also highlighted the resources that have been spreading this data. Here’s his quote to that effect.

If you panicked and sold off crypto assets because of a photoshopped picture – well, you probably won’t get rich.

Block sources that distribute such things.

Changpen also recommended keeping an eye on publications in general. Apparently, the news about the alleged problems with Interpol was unpleasant for him.

You will be rich on the level of your credibility. So don’t destroy it.

The bottom line is that this news is based entirely on rumour, which a well-known person within the industry helped spread. Be that as it may, it led to a brief collapse in the market, which could end in liquidations for certain traders. Consequently, in the cryptocurrency world, losses of funds can also be triggered by completely fictitious news.


We believe that such situations do not paint the cryptocurrency industry. Obviously, the author of this negative PR campaign here wanted to capitalize on the market movement given the publication of the news. Also - as Changpen pointed out - rival cryptocurrency exchanges could be behind the developments. In any case, the market survived the short-term panic, well Bitcoin continues to be above $28,000. This means that we can say that the consequences of this case have been eliminated.


Look for even more interesting things in our crypto-chat of former millionaires. There we discuss other important details and also wait for the bullrun.

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