Decentral Block Post

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has refuted accusations that Binance has been secretly selling Bitcoin (BTC) to artificially stabilize the price of its native token Binance Coin (BNB).

The rumors have come from several market commentators, including analyst Dylan LeClair and Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten, who have accused Binance of intentionally manipulating the market to artificially inflate the value of BNB.

In a June 13 tweet, CZ said that Binance had not sold any of their BTC or BNB, adding that the crypto exchange still held “a bag” of FTX Token (FTT) — the native token of the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX.

“It is amazing they can know exactly who sold based on just a price chart involving millions of traders. FUD,” he added.

CZ’s post was direct response to a June 14 post from technical analysis platform Skew, which accused Binance of manipulating the market through a series of trades involving BTC, BNB and Tether (USDT):

Bitcoin has been trading in a narrow 3.4% range for the past three days after successfully defending the $25,500 support on June 10. In this time, investors’ attention has shifted to the macroeconomic area as the United States Federal Reserve will announce its interest rate decision on June 14.

Cryptocurrencies might work independently from the traditional finance markets, but the cost of capital impacts almost every investor. Back in May, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate to 5–5.25%, the highest since 2007.

All eyes will be on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's media speech 30 minutes after the rate announcement as markets are pricing in 94% odds of a pause at the June meeting, based on the CME FedWatch tool.

Crypto fears more than just an FOMC meeting

The upcoming Federal Open Market Committee meeting isn’t the only concern for the economy, as the U.S. Treasury is set to issue more than $850 billion in new bills between now and September.

Additional government debt issuance tends to cause higher yields and, thus, higher borrowing costs for companies and families. Considering the already-restrained credit market due to the recent banking crisis, odds are that gross domestic product growth will be severely compromised in the coming months.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell back in line at the June 12 Wall Street open after a brief macroeconomic data jolt failed to shift the status quo.

Markets expect first Fed pause since 2021

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD continuing to circle $26,000, avoiding major volatility.

The largest cryptocurrency saw a brief spike toward $26,500 on the back of the latest United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) print, which came in below expectations.

While ostensibly a boon to risk assets, crypto markets remained cautious on the day, with comments from the Federal Reserve and further macro prints due in the coming days.

Bets on the Fed pausing its rate hike cycle on June 14 after the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), meanwhile, climbed following the CPI event. At the time of writing, per CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, the odds stood at over 90%, having started the day at 75%.