Bitget to Roll Back $12.7B VOXEL Trades After Market-Making Bug Sparks Million-Dollar Exploits

On April 20, cryptocurrency exchange Bitget found itself at the center of storm when a malfunction in its market-making bot led to significant abnormal price fluctuations in the VOXEL/USDT perpetual futures contract. This anomaly resulted in the token's trading volume skyrocketing to $12.7 billion, surpassing Bitcoin's daily trading volume on the platform. Some contract traders exploited this glitch to earn millions in half an hour. In response, Bitget announced plans to roll back all abnormal trades and compensate users who traded VOXELUSDT contracts and incurred losses during the glitch.

The dramatic event happened between 8:00 and 8:30 UTC. Astute traders noticed something unusual with VOXEL, the native token of the Polygon-based role-playing game Voxie Tactics. The VOXEL/USDT pair began oscillating rapidly within a narrow price range on Bitget's perpetual futures market—between $0.125 and $0.138 or $0.135 and $0.148. Traders quickly reacted to this anomaly, driving the token's 24-hour trading volume to a staggering $12.72 billion, surpassing Bitcoin's 24-hour volume on the same day.

Investigations revealed that the root cause of this price anomaly was a flaw in Bitget's market maker bot. The bot inadvertently matched orders at predictable intervals, causing VOXEL's price to cycle between $0.125 and $0.138 or $0.135 and $0.148 every few seconds, creating an arbitrage opportunity. Traders swiftly capitalized on this, using high-frequency trading (HFT) and leverage (up to 125x) to amplify gains. Users would buy long positions at the lower end (e.g., $0.135) and set take-profit orders at the higher end (e.g., $0.148). The bot consistently executed these orders, ensuring rapid profits. Posts on X reported staggering returns: one user claimed to have turned 100 USDT into six figures, while another grew 200 USDT to 7,000 USDT within an hour.

Around 9:30 UTC, Bitget's Chinese-speaking representative Xie Jiayin (@xiejiayinBitget) announced that Bitget had noticed the abnormal trading behavior and was conducting an investigation. The exchange assured users that core functions like trading and withdrawals remained unaffected, although some accounts faced temporary restrictions due to risk control measures.

Subsequently, Bitget issued an official statement outlining its response to the "abnormal trading": certain accounts were found to have potentially engaged in market manipulation, triggering Bitget's risk control system. All abnormal trades would be rolled back within 24 hours, which would result in the evaporation of all profits gained from exploiting the glitch during that period. Bitget also announced a compensation plan for users who traded the VOXELUSDT contract between 8:00 and 8:30 UTC on April 20 and incurred losses during this period.

This response sparked considerable controversy. Supporters praised Bitget's efforts to maintain a fair trading environment, while critics argued that Bitget unjustly penalized traders who acted according to the system's rules, significantly damaging user trust.