BNB Chain has announced a new $45 million “Reload Airdrop” program to help traders who took heavy losses in last Friday’s crypto market crash — particularly those active in memecoin markets.
The compensation plan will distribute BNB tokens, worth around $1,194 each, to over 160,000 wallets deemed eligible, according to a Monday update from the network. The airdrop process begins this week and is expected to wrap up by early November.
BNB Chain — originally developed by Binance and now maintained by a decentralized community — serves as the foundation for the BNB token and powers various DeFi, gaming, and digital asset applications within its ecosystem.
Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said that rewards will be distributed randomly among users. Distribution partners include Four Meme, PancakeSwap, Binance Wallet, and Trust Wallet, all of which will assist in delivering tokens to verified users.
The airdrop comes in the aftermath of a massive sell-off on Friday that wiped out around $20 billion in crypto positions, marking the largest single-day liquidation in crypto history.
Despite the chaos, BNB rebounded strongly, touching a new all-time high of $1,370 per token on Monday, as reported by CoinMarketCap. Still, Binance faced community backlash, with some traders blaming the exchange for contributing to the market volatility.
Binance Addresses the Crash and User Complaints
The crypto crash was partly triggered by a Truth Social post from U.S. President Donald Trump, who announced plans for 100% tariffs on Chinese imports — a move that sent shockwaves through global markets and triggered a chain of liquidations across crypto exchanges.
During the event, some Binance traders reported technical disruptions that prevented them from closing positions. One user, SleeperShadow, posted on X that Binance had “shut down during the crash,” leaving them unable to exit futures trades.
Another source of controversy came from the USDe synthetic dollar, issued by Ethena Labs, which briefly crashed to $0.65 on Binance — while remaining stable near $1 elsewhere. Ethena Labs founder Guy Young later explained that Binance’s pricing relied on its own orderbook data rather than external oracle feeds, causing discrepancies during high-volatility moments.
Adding to the chaos, several altcoins including IoTex (IOTX), Enjin (ENJ), and Cosmos (ATOM) appeared to drop to $0 on Binance’s charts, even though they maintained value on other platforms.
In response, Binance published a “statement on recent market volatility” on Sunday. The company said its systems remained functional during the crash and that the extreme price moves were triggered by thin liquidity and outdated limit orders. The temporary “zero price” display issue was attributed to a decimal configuration change, not an actual price collapse.
Binance also clarified that forced liquidations on its exchange accounted for only a small fraction of the total market’s losses, suggesting the crash was a global market event rather than an internal failure.
Finally, the exchange acknowledged that certain collateralized assets — including USDe, BNSOL, and WBETH — experienced depegging issues that led to user liquidations. To offset these losses, Binance covered $283 million in compensation for affected users.
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