On May 31, centralized cryptocurrency exchange Gate.io denied rumors of illiquidity, saying “there are no rumored issues with our operations or withdrawals.” The statement came after numerous Twitter channels claimed that the exchange had gone bankrupt due to its alleged association with cross -chain router protocol Multichain (MULTI).
The Gate.io team said the company is “in good shape” and is focusing on building an affiliated exchange in Hong Kong called Gate.HK. Following a series of events related to Multichain, rumors of Gate.io's bankruptcy broke out. On May 24, data released by blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence showed a massive inflow of MULTI into Gate.io, which Arkham said was related to rumors of the protocol's team being “allegedly arrested in Shanghai.” On May 25, Binance suspended deposits for several bridges tokens that rely on multi-chain protocols, including bridge versions of Polkastarter (POLS), Alpaca Finance (ALPACA), and Fantom (FTM). Binance said the tokens encountered delayed trading and a temporary suspension of deposits while seeking clarification from Multichain.
On May 31, Multichain issued a statement saying its CEO was missing, adding that some routers for the protocol no longer work because only the CEO has access to the relevant servers. On the same day, some Twitter users began posting images of transactions purportedly by members of the Multichain team depositing large amounts of FTM to Gate.io. Blockchain data confirms that more than $10 million in FTM was transferred from unknown users to Gate.io on May 25-26. Cointelegraph was unable to determine the identity of the account owner who performed the transaction. After seeing multiple deposits from MULTI and Fantom to Gate.io, some Twitter users suspected that the exchange was influenced by Multichain.
The Gate.io team has denied these rumors, saying the exchange is processing all withdrawals and operating normally.
