Bitget Global hit by $10 million deficit after listing fake version of Floki Inu TOKEN

Meme coin project Floki Inu said Wednesday that crypto derivatives exchange Bitget's move to delist its newly-created token, TokenFi (TOKEN), has resulted in a $10 million deficit for the exchange. On Tuesday, Bitget said that it had delisted the token due to potential price manipulation and liquidity issues, with Floki Inu responding that Bitget had listed a "fake token" after ignoring requests of waiting for a week.

Bitget scrambles to fill alleged $10 million hole 

Bitget exchange has found itself in a $10 million hole after the exchange listed the fake version of Floki’s TOKEN and suffered price manipulation, according to Floki Inu. The exchange had recently disregarded Floki’s request against immediately listing its token. The listing was followed by millions of dollars in trade without equivalent assets to facilitate user withdrawals. 

Bitget listed the fake TOKEN before the asset became officially tradable. The team behind Floki described the series of events that led to Bitget’s listing and the financial setback for the exchange, in a tweet on X.

The exchange platform had initially criticized Floki’s TOKEN treasury and vesting schedule. The incident has left Bitget scrambling to recover its losses. Bitget’s situation requires 10% of the TokenFi total supply, to make the exchange whole after its $10 million deficit. The challenge is that a majority of TOKEN is currently locked in Floki’s staking pool and there is a lack of liquidity. Bitget may not be able to buy an equivalent volume of TOKEN on cryptocurrency exchanges. Bitget didn't inmediately respond FXStreet requests for comment about the amount liable to customers.

Binance CEO condemns Bitget’s move

Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) criticized Bitget exchange for its fake token listing in a recent tweet on X. 

CZ claims that the exchange has “messed with the wrong community,” referring to Floki Inu project’s FLOKI and TOKEN holders.