In response to a series of transaction issues that raised concerns about the Multichain (MULTI) protocol, leading crypto exchange Binance has temporarily suspended deposits for 10 bridged tokens as of May 25.

Affected token pairs include polkastarter (POLS), alpacatoken (ALPACA), travala.com (AVA), spell (SPELL), fantom (FTM), alchemy (ACH), beefy (BIFI), superverse (SUPER), harvest finance (FARM), and dexe (DEXE).

A temporary suspension

In a tweet that went out on May 25, Binance shared that they will temporarily be suspending deposits for bridged tokens-network while they await clarity.

The announcement impacts the following pairings, POLS-BSC, ACH-BSC, BIFI-FTM, SUPER-BSC, AVA-ETH, SPELL-AVAXC, ALPACA-FTM, FTM-ETH, FARM-BSC, DEXE-BSC on the BNB Smart Chain, Fantom, Ethereum, and Avalanche blockchain networks. 

As stated on Binance’s deposit page, although deposits for these specific tokens are temporarily halted, withdrawals of these tokens and deposits on other supported networks remain unaffected and continue to be available for users.

The fuel for uncertainty

Despite Binance attributing the suspension to Multichain, the company has been relatively silent. The last tweet from Multichain went out on May 24.

However, on Twitter, rumours also circulated around the Multichain team being arrested in Shanghai and causing the initiation of the transfer of funds.

According to @ArkhamIntel on Twitter, team wallets associated with the project have reportedly shifted approximately $3 million worth of $MULTI to the cryptocurrency exchange Gate.io. These developments have further contributed to investor apprehension, resulting in a significant 26.5% drop in the price of $MULTI within a 24-hour period. 

This incident highlights the vulnerability of the cryptocurrency market to technical issues, regulatory uncertainties, and unverified information, reiterating just how important transparency, communication, and prompt resolution of issues are to the ongoing development and adoption of cryptocurrencies.