Surrounded by enemies? Zhao Changpeng claims to be under DDoS attacks from competitors and facing malicious threats from the media. We compared the actual situation.

Binance recently experienced a DDoS attack, causing platform delays and intermittent outages, lasting for several hours. CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) suspects the attacks were orchestrated by competitors of the exchange, claiming their intention was to tarnish Binance's reputation rather than steal cryptocurrencies. As for malicious media, this has been a professional area in China where money is made by writing negative articles, but the actual situation may not be entirely as it seems.

Response from OKEx to Attacks from Competitors

On April 29th, Binance suffered a series of DDoS attacks targeting its Chinese domain. CZ pointed out that the attacks were organized and well-coordinated, appearing to come from competitors. However, he emphasized that there was no need to worry excessively as user funds were very secure.

Earlier today, our Chinese domains experienced targeted DDoS attacks, and users saw some lag and interruption of network access.

Based on the attack pattern, it looks like work of our self-perceived competitors.

No need to be concerned. Systems are fine. Funds are #SAFU.

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) April 29, 2020

CZ explained that since the attacks did not result in any financial losses, carrying out a DDoS attack would cost hackers more than the harm caused to the exchange itself. Thus, it was determined that the primary objective was to disrupt user experience.

CZ stated that they utilize extensive caching and clustering services to optimize the performance for users worldwide. Different system structures and services are used for each region, and these attacks targeted all public endpoints in the targeted regions simultaneously.

[Note] A denial-of-service attack (DoS) involves sending a large volume of requests to a target, causing the target system (website or application) to become overwhelmed and consequently interrupt or stop services. A distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) occurs when attackers use multiple hijacked or controlled computers to launch the attack.

There may indeed be numerous hackers or competitors eyeing Binance as a lucrative target. However, Jay Hao, CEO of the exchange OKEx, previously criticized Binance's ad hoc maintenance as stemming from issues within their own system. According to Jay Hao, he believed that the system used by Binance was not the best technology for high-frequency trading systems.

Is the Media Influenced by Money?

In addition to attacks on exchanges, according to reports from foreign media, CZ claimed that there is a phenomenon of malicious media ("black media") in the entire cryptocurrency field. These media outlets write negative articles until companies are willing to pay to whitewash their image. It appears that these media outlets have indeed accepted funding from Binance's competitors. CZ stated:

If you have been in this industry for some time, you will know who they are. The entire Chinese crypto community is aware of these insiders, but this industry still exists. For an attack like this, within 5 minutes of the incident, they immediately published a lengthy article criticizing the unreliability of Binance's services, along with all negative news about Binance.

It is known that in China, "black media" has long been a profitable model, often resorting to gossip, fabricating facts, and engaging in extortion for financial gain. While such practices are less common in Taiwan and are typically aimed at pleasing audiences and gaining influence. CZ's accusations against "black media" are not difficult to comprehend and may well hold merit.

As a leader in the cryptocurrency industry, Binance's every move is closely watched. It has been reported that OKEx and Bitfinex faced large-scale DDoS attacks, with some attributing them to Binance. Therefore, without substantial evidence, it remains a matter of differing opinions.

Furthermore, we have observed that some influential media outlets have published negative reports on Binance. For instance, The Block's research director, Larry, frequently criticizes Binance and presents various data and viewpoints to support his arguments. Larry claims that The Block is not influenced by any institutions and does not hold any bias against Binance. This issue has been followed for some time, and whether readers accept these viewpoints is subjective.

Additionally, we found that ChainNews, which has long featured important articles on the Chinese blockchain industry, has deleted several negative articles related to Binance. It is understood that these articles were not originally written by ChainNews but were removed after discrepancies between the content and facts were discovered.

Blockchain media plays a unique role in the blockchain industry. While blockchain technology brings transparency, commercial activities remain similar to those in human society that we are familiar with.