Audit log

Every state-changing event for BigONE Exchange: moderation decisions on community submissions, plus corrections and updates from the news pipeline. URL-based decisions carry three independent witnesses — the original source, an Internet Archive snapshot taken at submission time, and a Solana memo signed by our publicly-disclosed publisher key.

1. #1publishby system:backfill

   2026-06-01 17:47:09Z
   Score: ? → ? (no score change)
   anchoranchored

   chain

   ●mainnet-betaslot 423,640,126

   sig

   4dUhY7XkGajr…aG3VJHyicopyexplorer ↗

   hash

   F7MgfcYzc59c…Hx1baskMcopysha256 → base58

   verifying row…full verify ↗

   canonical bytes (19339 B) ▸

   {"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"9a595cf0-f69e-4a35-8bba-93a86ce51117","kind":"publish","page_slug":"bigone-exchange","published_at":"2026-06-01T17:47:09.859Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"BigONE Exchange","sections":[{"content":"BigONE launched as a global exchange in November 2017, rebranding from Yunbi.com, the leading Chinese digital-asset exchange at the time. Yunbi was founded and operated by INBlockchain, a prominent Chinese blockchain venture fund led by Li Xiaolai, a former New Oriental English teacher who became one of China's largest Bitcoin holders. INBlockchain also had Roger Ver (Bitcoin.com) as an early backer and publicist for the BigONE rebrand, though Ver's precise equity stake has not been publicly disclosed. The exchange is registered in Seychelles under BigONE, LLC, and its group companies operate marketing or technology offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Brazil, Vietnam, Japan, and Indonesia. As of 2025 the CEO is reported as Ian Tian, with Arman J. listed as Chief Anti-Money Laundering Officer. Li Xiaolai publicly announced his retirement from crypto investing in late 2018.","heading":"Background and Founding","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Yunbi / BigONE history via INBlockchain – NewsBTC","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.newsbtc.com/press-releases/how-bigone-is-taking-on-korean-market/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"A Chinese Bitcoin Tycoon and His Record-Breaking ICO – CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2017/07/18/a-chinese-bitcoin-tycoon-and-his-record-breaking-ico"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Xiaolai Li – Crunchbase","type":"other","url":"https://www.crunchbase.com/person/xiaolai-li"}]},{"content":"On July 16, 2025, BigONE disclosed that a threat actor had drained approximately $27 million from its hot wallets across five blockchains (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and BNB Smart Chain). Security firm SlowMist, retained by BigONE to investigate, classified the incident as a supply-chain attack: the attacker compromised the device of a key developer and deployed malicious binaries through compromised CI/CD or server-management channels, modifying the logic of the exchange's account and risk-control servers so that withdrawal requests were automatically approved without proper validation. Private keys were not directly exposed. The stolen assets were laundered into approximately 120 BTC (~$14 million), 1,272 ETH (~$4 million), 23.3 million TRX (~$7 million), and 2,625 SOL (~$428,000). BigONE initially framed the outage as routine maintenance before publicly acknowledging the breach. The exchange pledged full compensation from internal reserves and, where those were insufficient, from external borrowings, and offered up to $8 million in bounties for intelligence leading to fund recovery. Deposits and trading resumed within hours; withdrawal services remained suspended for an extended period. As of mid-2025, no confirmation of complete user reimbursement had been independently verified.","heading":"July 2025 Supply-Chain Hack ($27 Million)","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"Hacker steals $27 million in BigONE exchange crypto breach – BleepingComputer","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hacker-steals-27-million-in-bigone-exchange-crypto-breach/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"$27 million gone, no private keys exposed: How the BigONE hack happened – CoinTelegraph","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/explained/27-million-gone-no-private-keys-exposed-how-the-bigone-hack-happened"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Explained: The BigONE Hack (July 2025) – Halborn","type":"research","url":"https://www.halborn.com/blog/post/explained-the-big-one-hack-july-2025"},{"credibility":2,"name":"BigONE Exchange Loses $27 Million in Supply Chain Cyberattack – Brave New Coin","type":"news_article","url":"https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/bigone-exchange-loses-27-million-in-supply-chain-cyberattack"},{"credibility":2,"name":"BigONE: hacked for $27M and still open for business – Protos","type":"news_article","url":"https://protos.com/bigone-hacked-for-27m-and-still-open-for-business/"}]},{"content":"Concurrently with the July 2025 hack disclosure, blockchain investigator ZachXBT published on-chain findings alleging that BigONE had processed at least $60 million in proceeds from pig-butchering, romance, and investment scams through a single deposit address over a seven-month period prior to the hack. ZachXBT further alleged that a scam group then opened a new BigONE deposit address and funneled an additional $4.5 million in scam proceeds through it in the week surrounding the hack, suggesting that known scam entities continued to operate on the platform without effective enforcement. ZachXBT stated publicly: 'I do not feel bad for the team as this CEX processed a good bit of volume from pig butchering, romance, investment scams.' BigONE acknowledged that it had frozen 'a portion of the assets' and claimed cooperation with law enforcement, without specifying which agencies. The exchange did not publicly dispute ZachXBT's on-chain figures. These are allegations sourced from on-chain analysis by a pseudonymous researcher; no law enforcement action or court filing corroborating the figures has been publicly identified as of mid-2025.","heading":"Alleged Facilitation of Pig-Butchering and Investment Scams","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"ZachXBT Slams Hacked CEX BigONE, Says Firm Failed to Stop Months of Scam Activity – The Defiant","type":"news_article","url":"https://thedefiant.io/news/hacks/zachxbt-slams-bigone-for-scam-activitiy-after-hack"},{"credibility":2,"name":"ZachXBT Alleges BigONE Exchange Processed Over $60M from Pig Butchering Scams – Blockchain.news","type":"on_chain","url":"https://blockchain.news/flashnews/zachxbt-alleges-bigone-exchange-processed-over-60m-from-pig-butchering-scams"},{"credibility":2,"name":"ZachXBT Exposes Pig Butchering Scam Funneling $4.5M Through New BigONE BTC Address – Blockchain.news","type":"on_chain","url":"https://blockchain.news/flashnews/zachxbt-exposes-pig-butchering-scam-funneling-4-5m-through-new-bigone-exchange-btc-address"},{"credibility":2,"name":"BigONE Hacked for $27M, Linked to Scam Activity – CoinSpeaker","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coinspeaker.com/bigone-exchange-hacked-27m-scam-processing/"}]},{"content":"In mid-2018, Hacken.AI published an investigation concluding that the vast majority of BigONE's reported trading volume was fabricated. The researchers documented a 6,300,000% increase in BTC/USDT volume within three days (June 20–23, 2018), rising from roughly 2 BTC to 126,013 BTC daily. Despite briefly ranking in the top three exchanges by volume on CoinMarketCap, the exchange had only approximately 230,500 unique users — approximately 16 times fewer than Bittrex, which reported lower volume. Analysis of trade size distributions revealed that the eight most common trade sizes accounted for 54% of daily transactions on certain dates, a pattern consistent with bot-driven wash trading. Website traffic analytics showed no corresponding traffic surge during the volume explosion. Hacken concluded the patterns constituted strong evidence of volume manipulation. BigONE did not publicly refute the findings. A separate Bitcointalk thread (2019) alleged fake trading tournaments and theft of prizes, though these claims originate from unverified forum posts and carry low independent credibility.","heading":"Wash Trading and Fake Volume Allegations (2018)","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Investigation on fake trade volume: BigONE – Hacken.AI (Medium)","type":"research","url":"https://hackenclub.medium.com/investigation-on-fake-trade-volume-of-top-crypto-exchanges-bigone-8ba26eff563a"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Exchange Big.One scam – false trading volumes, fake tournaments – Bitcointalk","type":"community_report","url":"https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5139804.0"}]},{"content":"BigONE is incorporated in Seychelles and does not hold a license from any major financial regulator, including the UK FCA, Australian ASIC, or Cypriot CySEC. The exchange does not offer services to US residents or citizens. No OFAC designation of BigONE or its principals has been publicly identified as of mid-2025. The exchange's Seychelles registration provides minimal consumer protection and imposes no meaningful AML/KYC oversight comparable to G20 jurisdiction requirements. BigONE's Arman J. is listed internally as Chief Anti-Money Laundering Officer, but no independent audit of the exchange's AML program has been publicly disclosed. The platform's continued operation despite the ZachXBT scam-processing allegations without apparent regulatory intervention reflects its offshore registration strategy.","heading":"Regulatory Status and Licensing","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"BigONE Risk Warning – BrokerhiveX","type":"other","url":"https://www.brokerhivex.com/en/news/68ad72d71c1a1"},{"credibility":3,"name":"BigONE Review 2026: Pros, Cons and Key Features – TradersUnion","type":"other","url":"https://tradersunion.com/brokers/crypto/view/bigone/"}]},{"content":"BigONE holds a 2.1 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot based on user reviews, with recurring complaints including: inability to withdraw funds with the exchange citing unmet transaction requirements; accounts frozen after users report profits; and coin delistings executed without advance notice that left users unable to recover holdings. TradersUnion assigned the exchange a score of 4.02 out of 10, with analysts recommending users consider more regulated alternatives. These complaints predate the July 2025 hack and reflect structural operational concerns independent of the security incident. The hack itself caused an additional period of suspended withdrawals of indeterminate length.","heading":"User Complaints and Withdrawal Issues","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"BigONE user reviews – Trustpilot","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.trustpilot.com/review/bigone.com"},{"credibility":3,"name":"BigONE Review 2026 – TradersUnion","type":"other","url":"https://tradersunion.com/brokers/crypto/view/bigone/"},{"credibility":3,"name":"Is BigONE a Scam? Reviews – Revieweek","type":"community_report","url":"https://revieweek.com/review/big-one/"}]},{"content":"As of mid-2025, BigONE continues to operate, offering spot and derivatives trading with up to 100x leverage, across approximately 202 coins and 794 trading pairs. Reported 24-hour spot volume has been cited at approximately $535 million, though given the documented history of volume manipulation (2018 Hacken investigation), self-reported figures carry limited reliability. CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap list the exchange, and it ranks approximately #80 among centralized exchanges on some trackers. Post-hack, the exchange stated its insurance reserves and borrowing capacity would cover the $27 million shortfall, but the adequacy of those reserves has not been independently verified.","heading":"Operational Status and Trading Volume","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"BigONE Statistics – CoinGecko","type":"other","url":"https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges/bigone"},{"credibility":2,"name":"BigONE trade volume and market listings – CoinMarketCap","type":"other","url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bigone/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"BigONE Exchange Suffers Supply Chain Attack, Losses Exceed $27M – CryptoNews","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptonews.com/news/bigone-exchange-suffers-supply-chain-attack-losses-exceed-27m/"}]}],"sources_used":[{"name":"Hacker steals $27 million in BigONE exchange crypto breach – BleepingComputer","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hacker-steals-27-million-in-bigone-exchange-crypto-breach/"},{"name":"$27 million gone, no private keys exposed: How the BigONE hack happened – CoinTelegraph","type":"news_article","url":"https://cointelegraph.com/explained/27-million-gone-no-private-keys-exposed-how-the-bigone-hack-happened"},{"name":"BigONE Exchange Loses $27 Million in Supply Chain Cyberattack – Brave New Coin","type":"news_article","url":"https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/bigone-exchange-loses-27-million-in-supply-chain-cyberattack"},{"name":"BigONE Exchange Hacked: $27 Million in Digital Assets Stolen – BeInCrypto","type":"news_article","url":"https://beincrypto.com/bigone-exchange-hacked-27-million-stolen/"},{"name":"ZachXBT Slams Hacked CEX BigONE, Says Firm Failed to Stop Months of Scam Activity – The Defiant","type":"news_article","url":"https://thedefiant.io/news/hacks/zachxbt-slams-bigone-for-scam-activitiy-after-hack"},{"name":"BigONE Hacked for $27M, Linked to Scam Activity – CoinSpeaker","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coinspeaker.com/bigone-exchange-hacked-27m-scam-processing/"},{"name":"ZachXBT Alleges BigONE Exchange Processed Over $60M from Pig Butchering Scams – Blockchain.news","type":"on_chain","url":"https://blockchain.news/flashnews/zachxbt-alleges-bigone-exchange-processed-over-60m-from-pig-butchering-scams"},{"name":"ZachXBT Exposes Pig Butchering Scam Funneling $4.5M Through New BigONE BTC Address – Blockchain.news","type":"on_chain","url":"https://blockchain.news/flashnews/zachxbt-exposes-pig-butchering-scam-funneling-4-5m-through-new-bigone-exchange-btc-address"},{"name":"BigONE: hacked for $27M and still open for business – Protos","type":"news_article","url":"https://protos.com/bigone-hacked-for-27m-and-still-open-for-business/"},{"name":"Explained: The BigONE Hack (July 2025) – Halborn","type":"research","url":"https://www.halborn.com/blog/post/explained-the-big-one-hack-july-2025"},{"name":"Investigation on fake trade volume: BigONE – Hacken.AI (Medium)","type":"research","url":"https://hackenclub.medium.com/investigation-on-fake-trade-volume-of-top-crypto-exchanges-bigone-8ba26eff563a"},{"name":"BigONE Exchange Suffers Supply Chain Attack – CryptoNews","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptonews.com/news/bigone-exchange-suffers-supply-chain-attack-losses-exceed-27m/"},{"name":"Exchange Big.One scam – false trading volumes, fake tournaments – Bitcointalk","type":"community_report","url":"https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5139804.0"},{"name":"BigONE user reviews – Trustpilot","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.trustpilot.com/review/bigone.com"},{"name":"A Chinese Bitcoin Tycoon and His Record-Breaking ICO – CoinDesk","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2017/07/18/a-chinese-bitcoin-tycoon-and-his-record-breaking-ico"},{"name":"Crypto Exchange BigONE Confirms $27M Hack, Vows Full User Compensation – Yahoo Finance","type":"news_article","url":"https://finance.yahoo.com/news/crypto-exchange-bigone-confirms-27m-080147918.html"},{"name":"BigONE Statistics – CoinGecko","type":"other","url":"https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges/bigone"},{"name":"BigONE trade volume and market listings – CoinMarketCap","type":"other","url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bigone/"}],"summary":"BigONE is a Seychelles-registered centralized cryptocurrency exchange that launched globally in November 2017, evolving from Yunbi.com, a China-based exchange backed by Li Xiaolai's INBlockchain fund. In July 2025 the exchange suffered a $27 million supply-chain hack; simultaneously, blockchain investigator ZachXBT alleged the platform had processed at least $60 million in pig-butchering and romance-scam proceeds through a single deposit address over the prior seven months. The exchange operates without a license from major financial regulators (FCA, ASIC, CySEC) and carries a documented history of alleged wash trading, user complaints about frozen withdrawals, and tournament prize disputes.","timeline":[{"date":"2017-06-24","event":"The big.one domain is registered, laying groundwork for the global rebrand of Yunbi.com.","source":"Cypherhunter entity profile","source_url":"https://www.cypherhunter.com/en/p/bigone/"},{"date":"2017-11-01","event":"BigONE officially launches as a global cryptocurrency exchange, rebranding from Yunbi.com (INBlockchain / Li Xiaolai). Roger Ver (Bitcoin.com) is cited as an early backer and promoter.","source":"NewsBTC press release","source_url":"https://www.newsbtc.com/press-releases/how-bigone-is-taking-on-korean-market/"},{"date":"2018-06-23","event":"BigONE reports a 6,300,000% surge in BTC/USDT volume within three days, briefly reaching CoinMarketCap's top 3 by volume. Hacken.AI subsequently investigates and concludes the volumes are fabricated.","source":"Hacken.AI investigation – Medium","source_url":"https://hackenclub.medium.com/investigation-on-fake-trade-volume-of-top-crypto-exchanges-bigone-8ba26eff563a"},{"date":"2018-12-01","event":"Li Xiaolai, BigONE's founding backer, publicly announces retirement from crypto investing via Weibo.","source":"Asia Crypto Today","source_url":"https://www.asiacryptotoday.com/chinese-bitcoin-billionare-li-xiaolai-secrectly-recorded-outing-many-big-names-in-crypto/"},{"date":"2019-05-01","event":"Bitcointalk thread published alleging BigONE ran fake trading tournaments and withheld prize payments from winners.","source":"Bitcointalk forum thread","source_url":"https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5139804.0"},{"date":"2024-12-01","event":"ZachXBT identifies a single BigONE deposit address that had allegedly received over $60 million in pig-butchering and romance scam proceeds over the prior seven months.","source":"Blockchain.news flash news","source_url":"https://blockchain.news/flashnews/zachxbt-alleges-bigone-exchange-processed-over-60m-from-pig-butchering-scams"},{"date":"2025-07-09","event":"ZachXBT reports that a pig-butchering scam group opened a new BigONE Bitcoin deposit address and funneled approximately $4.5 million in scam proceeds through it within one week.","source":"Blockchain.news flash news","source_url":"https://blockchain.news/flashnews/zachxbt-exposes-pig-butchering-scam-funneling-4-5m-through-new-bigone-exchange-btc-address"},{"date":"2025-07-16","event":"BigONE suffers a $27 million supply-chain hack. Attackers compromise a developer's device and deploy malicious binaries that modify withdrawal-approval logic, draining hot wallets across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and BNB Smart Chain.","source":"BleepingComputer","source_url":"https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hacker-steals-27-million-in-bigone-exchange-crypto-breach/"},{"date":"2025-07-16","event":"ZachXBT publicly criticizes BigONE following the hack, stating the exchange processed significant scam-related volumes and expressing no sympathy for the team.","source":"The Defiant","source_url":"https://thedefiant.io/news/hacks/zachxbt-slams-bigone-for-scam-activitiy-after-hack"},{"date":"2025-07-17","event":"BigONE pledges full user compensation from internal reserves and external borrowings; announces up to $8 million in recovery bounties; engages SlowMist for forensic investigation.","source":"CoinTelegraph","source_url":"https://cointelegraph.com/explained/27-million-gone-no-private-keys-exposed-how-the-bigone-hack-happened"}]},"v":1}

   Verify offline (run on your own machine)

   python -m src.verify_decision b4f9c166-1d89-4fec-82c4-5ef4f3324cffcopy