📊LA Contract "Pinning" Controversy: Gate.io Data Source Anomaly, Liquidated Users Left to Bear Losses?
📅 Recently, Gate.io has been embroiled in controversy due to the $LA/USDT contract anomaly "pinning." Multiple users have accused Gate.io of manipulation during the severe price fluctuations of the contract, leading to many users experiencing abnormal liquidations, even to the point of negative balances, resulting in heavy losses.
Although Gate.io has responded regarding the cause of the incident and the compensation plan, community users seem unconvinced. ChainCatcher sought further responses from Gate.io regarding user concerns, but the reply from Gate.io regarding the key incident causes and compensation plans was essentially the same as the announcement, with no new details provided.
Why is Gate.io's response not convincing to users?
On June 4th at 8 PM (UTC+8), Gate.io launched the $LA/USDT perpetual contract. Approximately 4 minutes after opening, the price of $LA skyrocketed from around 0.36 USDT to 27 USDT in a matter of seconds, then plummeted back to around 0.2 USDT. During this time, the spot price of LA on other exchanges trading the same asset and the on-chain price mostly remained around 1 USDT.
This deviation from normal fluctuations, known as "pinning," caused a large number of users to be liquidated in a short period, with some accounts even experiencing negative balances. Crypto KOL @Elizabethofyou reported a loss of 20,000 USDT in this incident, while @BTC_Alert_ stated a loss of 100,000 USDT and an additional debt of 120,000 USDT owed to the platform, during which they were unable to increase or close positions.
Gate.io subsequently delisted the contract and announced around 9:28 PM that night that they would compensate for the negative balance portion.
‼️Trust Crisis Following Frequent CEX Contract Incidents
Contracts are the core profit business of CEX. However, from the Bitget VOXEL contract controversy to the disputes triggered by the Gate.io LA contract anomaly, it reflects the technical and risk control challenges faced by CEX in high-leverage, high-risk contract trading. Additionally, CEX's handling of crises is marked by a lack of transparency and insufficient user rights protection, further leading to a trust crisis among users.
