Mysterious initial deposit allegations surface after Binance token delisting announcement

On Dec. 15, cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced that due to not meeting the “high level of standard we expect,” four tokens, including Mithril (MITH) Tribe (TRIBE) Augur (REP) Bitcoin Standard Hashrate Token (BTCST), will be delisted from the exchange effective Dec. 22, 2022. 

Immediately after the announcement, Twitter accounts from decentralized social media protocol Mithril, whose tokens had a market cap of less than $10 million at the time of publication, posted the following statement:

“Today, Binance has announced that it will delist MITH. As part of the MITH listing, Binance required a 200,000 BNB [$52.7 million at the time of publication but $1.916 million at the time of initial MITH listing] deposit, which was never returned. On behalf of the Mithril community, we ask @cz_binance to return this deposit so that Mithril may continue to operate.”

Initially, users panned the Mithril Twitter account, which had remained dormant for nearly two years, with the last post taking place on Jan. 7, 2021. At the time of publication, the project’s official website appears offline.

Lmao project that was dead for 2 years and didn’t have a single Tweet since Jan 2021 rushes to Twitter to ask for their money back after delisting.

Delisting happened this morning, funny how fast they were to complain after being dead silent to holders for those 2 years. https://t.co/5jRxoQEGyf

— Tree of Alpha (@Tree_of_Alpha) December 15, 2022

However, the issue appeared more sophisticated than initially understood. In an initial listing document published by Binance dated Nov. 15, 2018, the exchange stated: 

“Binance will open trading for MITH/BTC and MITH/BNB trading pairs at 2018/11/15 2:00 PM (UTC). Users can now start depositing MITH in preparation for trading. The Mithril team will donate a 20,000 BNB equivalent amount to the Blockchain Charity Foundation in appreciation for this listing.

Cointelegraph previously reported in 2019 that at the time, Binance solicited considerations from newly listed crypto projects, which the exchange denied as being “listing fees,”. The said policies have since changed.

Cointelegraph has reached out to Binance for comments but did not receive a response by press time. This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.