• OKX exchange discovered that malicious actors manipulated the price of CELT token on Feb. 27
• 5 accounts were frozen and 3 million USDT will be airdropped to affected users
• Celestial agreed to return 1.3 million USDT and burning tokens acquired through buyback plan
CELT Token Price Manipulated on OKX Exchange
OKX exchange recently revealed that the price of gaming project Celestial’s native token CELT was manipulated by some malicious actors on its platform. On Feb. 27, the price of CELT fluctuated sharply, falling around 54% in less than two hours. This caused many to question if there was market manipulation involved from malicious traders looking for profit.
False Promotions Falsely Associated with OKX Brand
On Feb 26, Celestial officially announced the launch of its blockchain game and a few influencers falsely promoted it by associating the OKX brand with it without permission from the platform which is not allowed by them. It also clarified that there is no special relationship between OKX and any project parties apart from OKB and OKT being invested in Celestial and locking up tokens for one year under an investment agreement.
Investigation Launched into Market Fluctuations
Driven by public concern, OKX launched an investigation into the event on Feb 28th while Celestial apologized for the negative impact caused due to fake promotions which were manipulated by other KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders). The project party agreed to cooperate with them in their investigation as well as accept any decisions made regarding this matter.
Frozen Accounts & Airdrops as Compensation
After investigations completed, it was found out that 5 accounts had suspiciously profited from the price fluctuation and were frozen while part of their illicit profits had already been transferred out of exchanges totalling 714,381 Tether (USDT). To compensate affected users, over 3 million USDT will be airdropped while Celestial itself agreed to return 1.3 million USDT as well as burning tokens acquired through buyback plan.
Conclusion
In conclusion, OKX successfully identified malicious actors manipulating CELT token prices and stopped them before they could cause further harm to users or investors with frozen accounts alongside compensations such as airdroping 3 million USDTs along with returning 1.3 million USDTs plus burning tokens acquired through buyback plans all initiated by Celestial team themselves in order to minimize user losses caused due to this incident