Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget is initiating legal proceedings against eight account holders accused of manipulating the price of VOXEL/USDT perpetual futures contracts. The alleged incident occurred on April 20, 2025, resulting in approximately $20 million in illicit gains.
Xie Jiayin, Bitget’s head of Chinese operations, announced on April 27 that legal letters would be dispatched to the implicated accounts. She clarified that other users involved in VOXEL trading on the specified date, who have since withdrawn funds, are not subject to further action, and their accounts have been restored to normal operations.
The exchange detected abnormal trading activity on April 20, leading to a temporary suspension of the affected accounts. The VOXEL/USDT trading pair experienced an unprecedented volume of over $12 billion, significantly surpassing activity on other platforms. Bitget subsequently reversed the irregular trades to recover the unauthorized profits.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen emphasized that the manipulative trades were conducted by individual market participants and not the platform itself. She assured users that the incident did not compromise the overall safety of user funds.
The exchange plans to redistribute 100% of the recovered funds to affected users through airdrops. An internal investigation is ongoing to determine the root cause of the manipulation. Preliminary reports suggest a potential bug in a market maker bot may have been exploited by traders using high-leverage strategies.
VOXEL is the native utility token of Voxies, a 3D turn-based tactical RPG game built on the Ethereum blockchain.
