Binance confirmed on December 7, 2025, that it suspended an employee for using non-public internal information to trade and promote a newly issued memecoin. The case centers on a token called “Year of Yellow Fruit” and the misuse of the exchange’s official social channel to attempt a market pump, with Binance stating it launched an internal probe, began legal action and resolved the breach within 24 hours.
Insider promotion of “Year of Yellow Fruit” and rapid internal response
Binance reported that an employee, aware of a pending token issuance, posted from the firm’s official Binance Futures X account moments after the memecoin hit chain in an apparent attempt to influence market demand. The token, named “Year of Yellow Fruit,” was promoted with imagery and text intended to attract trading interest shortly after its on-chain release.
关于员工涉嫌违规事件的调查结果公告
亲爱的币安用户及社区成员：…
— Binance Futures (@BinanceFutures) December 8, 2025
Within roughly 24 hours of a whistleblower report, Binance opened and concluded an internal investigation, suspended the worker and initiated legal proceedings in the employee’s jurisdiction. The company characterized this sequence of actions as a rapid response that closed the immediate breach.
A shared whistleblower bounty totaling $100,000 was awarded to five people who reported the misconduct through official channels. The exchange’s leadership, including co-CEO He Yi, was cited as leading the rapid response and overseeing the deployment of the whistleblower rewards.
Binance framed the action as a demonstration of its enforcement capabilities and a zero-tolerance posture toward employees exploiting privileged information. The episode follows a similar suspension in March 2025, when a Wallet team staffer was alleged to have front-run trades tied to an upcoming token generation event, and it comes against a backdrop of prior regulatory scrutiny and large-scale settlements that have driven enhancements to internal controls and real-time monitoring.
Incidents of insider trading and social-media-driven pump attempts can amplify short-term volatility and erode investor confidence on centralized venues. They also create counterparty and reputational risk for liquidity providers and market makers that rely on fair and orderly market conditions.
For traders and product teams, the key operational takeaway is to monitor exchange announcements and off-chain communications closely, since coordinated messaging from official accounts can materially affect order flow and slippage. The episode underscores how off-chain promotional activity can interact with on-chain events to shape trading dynamics and execution quality.
The episode underscores the limits of on-chain transparency. While transactions are visible, the intent behind coordinated off-chain promotion can remain opaque until internal audits or whistleblowers reveal misconduct.
Binance’s public suspension, the $100,000 whistleblower award and the initiation of legal proceedings close the immediate incident but leave broader questions about controls and culture. The case highlights ongoing expectations that major trading venues align governance, internal accountability and information-control practices with the investor-protection standards applied in more mature financial markets.