Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget has launched legal action against eight trading accounts it claims manipulated the VOXEL token market and illegally profited more than $20 million during an unusual trading surge on April 20.
Jiayin Xie, Bitget’s Chinese representative, announced on April 27 that legal letters have been sent to these accounts, which the exchange believes belong to a “professional arbitrage group.” The Victoria, Seychelles-based exchange has promised to distribute all recovered funds to its users through airdrops.
看到有社区在讨论BG发出的律师函，我核实后，想跟大家澄清几个细节：
1、Bitget 将陆续发出8份律师函。
2、这8个账户疑似相关联的专业羊毛利益集团，是导致本次VOXEL事件的主要始作俑者，并从中不当得利超过2000万美金。
3、追回的资金，Bitget 将100% 以空投形式发放给平台用户！…— 谢家印 (@xiejiayinBitget) April 27, 2025
The incident occurred when the price of VOXEL, the native token of the Polygon-based game Voxie Tactics, experienced extreme volatility. The token’s price surged by more than 560% in just 48 hours, jumping from $0.021 to $0.139.
VOXEL is currently trading at $0.074, representing a 47% decrease since the incident. On the day of the surge, Bitget flagged “abnormal activity” in VOXEL/USDT perpetual futures trading after observing suspicious volumes and price movements.
Market Manipulation or Technical Glitch?
The trading pair recorded over $12 billion in volume during the incident. This figure dwarfed the metrics of the same contract on Binance and even surpassed Bitcoin’s volume of $4.76 billion on the Bitget platform.
According to on-chain analyst Dylan, a malfunction in Bitget’s trading bot repeatedly triggered trades within a narrow price range between $0.125 and $0.138. This glitch reportedly allowed some users to earn hundreds of thousands of USDT in just a few hours using minimal capital.
Some traders reportedly made six-figure profits by investing just $100. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen previously told Cointelegraph that the trades involved were between individual market participants and not the platform itself.
The exchange has temporarily suspended certain accounts from trading, depositing, and withdrawing while investigating the matter. However, Bitget has stated that most users were unaffected by the incident and that only the eight identified accounts would face legal consequences.
“Except for these eight accounts, all other users who participated in VOXEL trading on April 20 and have withdrawn funds do not need to worry,” Xie stated. “The accounts have been restored to normal and no responsibility will be pursued in the future.”
何币哥，目前全球各大做市商已入驻Bitget，我们现有超过1000家机构客户与做市商，尽管出于信息保密的原则，我们无法一一透露。但圈子不大，欢迎您找行业内的朋友打听和了解。另外就是，我们的API一直是开放的，去年开始一直都在加强机构客户和流动性建设。机构用户的产品体验也是今年的重点，统一账户…
— 谢家印 (@xiejiayinBitget) April 20, 2025
Bitget has promised to release a complete report on the VOXEL incident as soon as possible, but has not yet disclosed exactly who was behind the activity or what technical issues allowed it to happen.
Community Reaction and Criticism
The crypto community has responded with mixed reactions to Bitget’s handling of the situation. Some users on X (formerly Twitter) have likened the exchange’s actions to a casino suing gamblers for winning the jackpot.
Others have criticized Bitget’s hybrid custody model, arguing that it places users at systemic risk and that the lack of limits on position size invites market manipulation. One X user commented, “If it is a normal transaction and not a bug caused by a technical attack, what is wrong with that? The correct solution is to look for the problem in yourself first.”
Another user warned Bitget not to attempt to deduct funds from users who did not withdraw their money, stating, “It’s not that easy to share the 20 million, so don’t even think about it, retail investors.”
Despite the controversy, Bitget remains one of the fastest-growing exchanges in the cryptocurrency space. The platform reports having over 100 million users worldwide and a daily trading volume of $20 billion.
Bitget stated that all account functions were fully restored as of Wednesday, April 23. The exchange has also committed to distributing the recovered funds to users through airdrops once the legal process concludes.
This incident follows a similar situation at decentralized exchange Hyperliquid on March 27, when a whale allegedly exploited liquidation parameters to profit at least $6.26 million on the Jelly my Jelly (JELLY) memecoin. Hyperliquid has since delisted perpetual futures tied to the JELLY token.
Source: https://blockonomi.com/bitget-files-legal-action-against-accounts-in-20m-voxel-token-manipulation-case/