It appears that Substratum has lost major liquidity today as Binance announces that they will be de-listing Substratum along with a few other projects.

The announcement was made via Binance’s Twitter:

In the picture above, Binance announces from their verified Twitter account that “#Binance Will Delist CLOAK, MOD, SALT, SUB and WINGS” with a link to their support site, which is as follows:

Binance Will Delist CLOAK, MOD, SALT, SUB and WINGS

https://support.binance.com/hc/en-us/articles/360023570292

For those that have been following the Substratum saga as of late, there were two major events in the past two months that caused tremendous controversy.

The leader of Substratum, Justin Tabb, announced around the beginning of January that they would be hedging some of their Ethereum with Tether in order to extend their project’s coffers. The numbers reported for the amounts garnered through Substratum’s ICO differ significantly from what the company itself reported in their whitepaper, leading many to speculate on whether the discrepancy was due to dishonesty in their reporting mechanisms.

Expert Cryptocurrency Investigation — Brian and William

Researchers Brian Li and William McKenzie have been the primary individuals in the cryptocurrency community responsible for delivering precise critiques of the Substratum project.

Both researchers have published a significant volume of work on ‘Decrypto.net’, that details their findings on the Substratum project.

Some examples of articles that they have published are:

https://decrypto.net/2019/01/03/potential-insider-trading-prior-to-substratums-v1-delay-announcement/

https://decrypto.net/tag/sec/

Impact of the Research

It appears that the results of Brian and William’s far-reaching research has led to Binance de-listing Substratum. At least according to Abram Cookson, Substratum’s CIO.

This was reflected in a not so subtle manner in one of the CIO’s recent tweets where he directly called out Brian Li and the Decrypto Blog.

The tweet (which is still up at the time of writing), is posted below:

So here’s how a smear campaign works ⁦⁦@binance⁩ ⁦@SubstratumNet⁩ @wbm_97 ⁦@DecryptoBL⁩ just lob enough vague accusations, partner up with a few like minded jerks and you can claim (not claim) anything with no consequence to lives you destroy. pic.twitter.com/ZCTyEkV7YW — abramcookson (@abramcookson) February 16, 2019

The tweet reads, “So here’s how a smear campaign works @binance @SubstratumNet @wbm_97 @DecryptoBL just lob enbough vague accusations, partner up with a few like minded jerks and you can claim (not claim) anything with no consequence to lives you destroy.”

The CIO of Substratum then posted the following collective of pictures, which are screenshots of conversations Abram Cookson had with both Brian Li and William McKenzie:

Quarrels With CZ (Owner of Binance)

The back and forth between Binance (CZ) and Substratum (Abram Cookson), was brief, yet notable.

It all occurred within this thread of conversation on Twitter:

Substratum became aware of our Binance delisting Feb 15. We have reached out to Binance for explanation. As soon as we have more information we will make it available. Development of Substratum continues and we are moving forward with monetization, security, and usability. — Substratum (@SubstratumNet) February 15, 2019

The full conversation thread is posted below for convenience:

It appeared that CZ had ended the conversation at that point, but there was further dialogue between the parties, with Substratum’s official Twitter issuing a response as well:

Takeaways From the Dialogue

According to the statements issued by CZ (founder of Binance), it appears that the following are true:

Substratum was de-listed by Binance because of CZ’s public allegation that Substratum was trading “funds you raised that was intended for product dev”. CZ did not specify what led him to that conclusion, but Abram Cookson’s public tweets regarding the matter heavily imply that the Substratum team suspects that Brian Li and William McKenzie are responsible for Binance adopting this stance.

CZ appeared adamant on his decision to remove Substratum.

It is unknown whether Substratum was able to open up any channels of communication with CZ or other decision-makers at Binance to perhaps negotiate an extension of their listing on the platform. There is no public evidence to suggest as much.

Subsequent Price Action (Substratum)

In the three days since the announcement was made by Binance, the price of Substratum has dropped by over 50%+.

Conclusion

Given the fact that Binance was a substantial source of liquidity for the project, many are declaring Substratum ‘dead’, given their recent de-listing from the exchange site.

Binance as an exchange has consistently ranked among the top 5 exchanges in terms of usage, users, and volume throughout the majority of 2018 and 2019 to this point. Thus, there is no realistic substitute exchange that Substratum will be able to find to replace this imminent loss of liquidity — at least in the foreseeable future.

PhotoCredit: CryptoBriefing