OKX has appointed Linda Lacewell as its new chief legal officer (CLO) after the departure of Mauricio Beugelmans.

Lacewell joined the crypto exchange as a board member last year having previously served as Superintendent and head of the New York Department of Financial Services, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

«Her leadership comes at a pivotal time as we expand into key markets such as Europe and U.A.E,» OKX said.

The announcement comes the day after CoinDesk reported that Lacewell’s predecessor Mauricio Beugelmans had left OKX, with his departure related to the exchange’s penalties of over $500 million paid to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), according to a source familiar with the matter.

The DOJ stated that OKX had facilitated more than $5 billion in “suspicious transactions and criminal proceeds.”

Multiple tokens cratered as much as 50% within 30-minutes on crypto exchange Binance on Tuesday, with market watchers wondering if a misconfigured trading bot could have caused the declines.

Act I, the Prophecy (ACT) slumped 50%, DeXe (DEXE) dropped 30% and dForce (DF) fell nearly 20% within minutes after 1100 UTC on Tuesday, data from Binance shows, with no immediate catalyst or explanation behind the sudden fall.

The drop led to $6.28 million worth of longs being liquidated on ACT-tracked futures across exchanges, Coinglass data shows, with a single trader hit with a $3.2 million liquidation.

Meanwhile, HIPPO, BANANA31, TST and LUMIA posted similar declines shortly after 1100 UTC, though not as large as ACT, with dips in some tokens like KAVA getting quickly purchased by fast-fingered traders.

The tokens are not related or in the same sector. Data showed a surge in selling volumes roughly around the same time, with no other tokens on Binance seeing similar spikes in selling volumes.

The stage for volatility was likely set by Binance’s announcement at 10:30 UTC, which introduced changes in leverage requirements and margin tiers for perpetual contracts for several tokens, including ACT/USDT.

The announcement said the new rules will be applicable to existing positions. That likely spurred position adjustments by trading bots, leading to price volatility in perpetuals, which quickly spilled over to spot prices.

The cascade spread over to other exchanges, with these tokens down equivalent amounts on other centralized exchanges as well as on decentralized exchanges.

Early reactions on X ranged from surprise to speculations of a market-making bot possibly causing the declines due to a misconfiguration on how they trade, though CoinDesk could not independently confirm the allegations as of writing time.

«Seems someone has been hacked or banned or idk,» Andrei Grachev, founder at DWF Labs said on X. «Otherwise I cannot explain why too many unrelated assets dumped.»

«Even though the update was on perps, the impact spilled into spot. Traders using cross-margin setups or running arb strategies were likely forced to unwind both sides. Panic from the perp cascade also spread, algos and discretionary players alike started exiting spot just to stay ahead of the move,» pseudonymous observer Game said in an X post.

UPDATE (April 1, 12:00 UTC): Adds additional details and background.

UPDATE (April 1, 12:18 UTC): Adds details on Binance changing leverage requirements.

Bitcoin (BTC) was inching towards 85,000 during European trading hours on Tuesday as traders largely await the impact of U.S. tariffs slated for Wednesday.

Dogecoin (DOGE) and Cardano (ADA) rose over 7% to lead muted gains among majors, with ether (ETH), XRP, Solana’s SOL and BNB Chain’s BNB were up nearly 5%.

Overall market capitalization decreased 3%, CoinGecko data shows, with the broad-based CoinDesk 20 bumped 3% in the past 24 hours.

The movements come amid a broader risk-off mood gripping markets, with U.S. equities stumbling — the S&P 500 logged a 3% drop last week, its worst since September 2023, and a rush to safe-haven asset gold, which surged to fresh highs early Tuesday.

The looming tariffs, paired with a flurry of U.S. economic and labor reports covering the past month have cast a shadow over crypto sentiment. Augustine Fan, head of insights at SignalPlus, pointed to a lack of fresh catalysts — such as no big ETF inflows — and a market stuck in low-conviction mode to close out a rocky quarter, one that ended in an 11% loss for bitcoin and the biggest for the S&P 500 since Q2 2022.

https://x.com/Barchart/status/1906821431352029565

On the futures front, speculative positions on bitcoin via the CME are at their most bearish in years, a sharp pivot from January’s bullish fever, Fan said.

“Keep in mind that positioning data is merely a statement on the market condition, and not necessarily a signal to a tradeable setup,” Fan said. “The catalysts for a sustained rally remain fleeting at the moment, though we would expect any bullish turn to be sharp given the extended short positioning at the moment.”

But there are signs of resilience among long-term holders. Glassnode data shows holders with 3-6 month positions are sitting on growing profits and trading at their lowest levels since June 2021 — a sign of conviction over panic selling.

Newer whales, or large investors who’ve taken positions in recent months, are also holding firm rather than cashing out, lending stability to bitcoin’s price floor, per Glassnode.

https://x.com/glassnode/status/1906713577471234255

Meanwhile, Jupiter Zheng, a partner at HashKey Capital’s Liquid Fund and Research, said they consider tariff suspense and economic data dump as a short-term headwind.

“The dip’s all about risk-off sentiment,” Zheng said in a Telegram message to CoinDesk. “We’re still optimistic in the long term, as more institutions integrate crypto while regulators across the world initiate new policies to enhance adoption.”