Original｜Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )
Author: Wenser ( @wenser 2010 )
Market Makers (MM) have always been an important role hidden behind crypto projects and trading platforms, earning rewards by providing liquidity for token transactions.
Until recently, the market maker accounts of GoPlus, MyShell and other projects were banned on Binance, which once again put the market maker (Market Maker) on the cusp of the storm. What many people cant imagine is that after achieving industry achievements such as listing on Binance, the culprit for the continuous decline of GoPlus and MyShells corresponding tokens GPS and SHELL turned out to be the projects cooperative market maker Web3port , and the active disclosure of industry insiders has added fuel to the storm: Web3port is backed by a group of encryption institutions in Shanghai. Odaily Planet Daily will briefly sort out this market maker storm in this article for readers reference.
GPS’s two extremes: listing on Binance spot and being monitored by Binance at high risk
On March 4, Binance officially announced that it will launch GoPlusSecurity (GPS) at 21:00 (Beijing time) on March 4, 2025, and open GPS/USDT, GPS/USDC, GPS/BNB, GPS/FDUSD and GPS/TRY trading pairs. In addition, Binance will provide GPS airdrop rewards to users who subscribe BNB to SimpleEarn products between 08:00 (UTC+ 8) on February 19, 2025 and 07:59 (UTC+ 8) on February 25, 2025.
As soon as the news came out, the markets FOMO for GPS arrived as expected, and its currency price once exceeded 0.19 USDT, with a 24-hour increase of more than 16%.
Subsequently, news came one after another that Binance would launch GPS leveraged trading and simple coin-earning services , and OKX would launch GPS U-based perpetual contracts . After seeing the news, many people bought in large amounts, expecting to enjoy the exchange new coin bonus in the volatile and falling market.
But the market soon slapped those who had such ideas in the face, and once again proved a truth - the market is always the opposite of what most people imagine.
On March 6, according to Binance market data , the price of GPS fell to 0.059 USDT, a drop of more than 60% from the high point (0.151 USDT) after it was listed on Binance two days ago.
Many people who bought GPS suffered heavy losses, and they did not even see the left-side upward momentum of the Christmas tree candlestick commonly seen in the crypto circle, but enjoyed the losses brought by the complete right-side downward candlestick trend. Countless people cursed GPS on X platform, WeChat group, TG group, etc., wondering why Binances new coin did not even have a rebound trend, but kept falling?
Just when everyone was puzzled, Binance officials gave their own investigation results:
On March 7, Binance added a watch tag to GoPlus Security (GPS), implying that the token has higher volatility and risk and is under Binance official observation and continuous review.
Subsequently, Binances investigation results showed that GPS market makers sold a total of about 70 million GPS between 13:00 (UTC) on March 4, 2025 and 9:55 (UTC) on March 5, 2025, without placing any buy orders. After spot trading was opened, the market maker continued to sell GPS and became the largest profiteer, making a profit of about US$5 million. Binance officials have launched an in-depth investigation into the incident and temporarily frozen the relevant market maker accounts.
Influenced by this news , GPS briefly rose by more than 50%, rising to 0.063 USDT, with a 24-hour increase of 10.05%.
At the same time, the specific identity of the market maker behind GPS has also aroused market speculation.
Web3port , the market maker behind GPS: Is this the “Shanghai Gang” in the capital institutions that specializes in exploiting Shanghai people?
On March 9, crypto KOL Kuai Dong broke the news on the X platform, saying: The case has been solved. The passive market maker of Myshell and GoPlus is GSR, and the active market maker is Web3port , the Shanghai team. The relevant Binance accounts should have been frozen. Web3port allocated tokens to Whisper, a market maker associated with itself. Whisper carried out continuous selling operations in Web3port s Binance account with internal permission. Now the account has been frozen by Binance. Several peers have confirmed that Web3port and Whisper belong to the same team.
Later, it was disclosed again that the main decision-maker behind Web3port was May Liu, who was the founder of Spark Digital Capital in Shanghai. In the early days, she mainly did market outsourcing + FA under the banner of VC to attract other VC institutions to take over her projects for which she obtained free tokens. Later, she established the incubator Web3port and the market maker Whisper - the former mainly obtained free token shares; the latter provided market making for the project party and provided a delivery window for the free token shares in its hands.
It is worth mentioning that the news was forwarded by Binance co-founder CZ shortly afterwards , which further revealed the real culprit of GPS crash to a certain extent. Later, CZ also commented : The power of the community. It has to be said that Binance has played a significant positive role in responding to the communitys call.
At the same time, GPS market makers also affected SHELL, another popular token in the BNB Chain ecosystem.
On the 9th, Binance officially issued another announcement . In an investigation into a market maker of GoPlus Security (GPS) (hereinafter referred to as the market maker), Binance found that the market maker was also responsible for the market making activities of the MyShell (SHELL) project. In order to better protect Binance users, Binance has taken the following additional measures for the improper behavior of the market maker:
The market maker has been delisted and banned from any further market making activities on Binance.
The relevant income of market makers has been confiscated and will be used to compensate users of the GPS and SHELL projects (the detailed compensation plan will be determined and announced by the relevant project teams).
In addition, according to people familiar with the matter , the ACE token was also the work of Spark Digital Capital. After experiencing an early pull-up, the token also fell all the way to around US$0.7 recently.
The market makers were supposed to provide liquidity for token projects, but in the end, they became the ultimate scythe that harvested investment institutions, project owners, and retail investors in a one-way manner, sucking the blood of the entire industry and enriching themselves. This matter subsequently became the focus of heated discussion among industry insiders.
Hot discussion: Market makers come out to clarify, some people think that market makers are industry parasites
The ugly behavior of Web3port and related institutions Spark Digital Capital and Whisper also aroused the disgust of people in the industry. Before their identities were exposed, officials from DWF Labs, a well-known market maker in the industry, also stepped forward to clarify in advance, for fear of not being able to eat the mutton but getting into trouble.
DWF Labs clarifies: It is not a market maker for GPS and SHELL
Previously, since the market maker identities of GPS and SHELL have not been firmly confirmed, some people in the market speculated that it might be DWF Labs.
In response to this incident, DWF co-founder Zac Zou immediately responded on the X platform, saying , DWF Labs is not the market maker (MM) of GPS and SHELL.
Manta Network Lianchuang Sharp Comment: Market Makers Are All Worms
Regarding the market makers that have been hotly discussed in the market recently, Victor Ji, co-founder of Manta Network, wrote: We basically receive invitations from so-called active market makers and OTCs to buy coins and acquire them every day. My attitude is to stay away. Whether market makers are active or passive, they are all blood-sucking termites in my eyes. They dont look at the fundamentals of the project at all. But every time there is a meeting, these people are very active in organizing events and running meetings, and the boss is also rich. Why? All this money comes from the project community. If in this industry, more funds do not pay attention to fundamentals, then the industry will collapse faster and faster, and market makers are the most blatant group of people who do not pay attention to fundamentals. I believe that liquidity comes from real community transactions. Whether you are optimistic or bearish, it is a natural market. If market makers are willing to participate, you can buy coins in the market to get a position.
Conclusion: The crypto industry without systematic supervision can only rely on the platform to handle
After this incident, the characteristics of the crypto industry such as the lack of an effective regulatory system were once again exposed. In the short term, behaviors such as market makers only selling but not buying can still only be punished by exchange platforms, and project parties have become accomplices in similar incidents, either actively or passively.
The final result is likely to be a world where only retail investors are hurt. After all, even if there is a corresponding compensation plan, it is often difficult to fully cover the previous trading losses. Perhaps in the future there will be a more complete monitoring mechanism that can allow industry evildoers to receive the punishment they deserve, rather than just a temporary ban.
