Earlier today, RedStone amended the terms of its RED token airdrop without warning, causing Binance to suspend its listing. This caused the price to crash dramatically amidst community feedback, but the project soon responded.

Now, an extra 2% of RED tokens are being airdropped today, and Binance is listing them as normal. The price has rebounded, but community resentment may linger all the same.

RedStone Airdrop Concerns and Binance Listing

RedStone, a DeFi oracle project, has run into some difficulties with its RED token airdrop. Over the past few months, the project became increasingly popular among the crypto community, and received support from leaders in Liquid Staking.

RedStone’s native token RED launched today, and Binance was supposed to list it on launch time.

However, the project claimed at the last minute that the airdrop would be smaller than usual, and Binance refused to list the token.

“Due to unexpected and last minute changes by RedStone to the allocation of their community airdrop distribution, the trading start time for RED will be suspended until further notice. RedStone had originally committed to distribute 9.5% of their total supply to the community via airdrop distribution. The project has now lowered this amount to 5% of the total supply,” it read.

Naturally, RedStone’s announcement caused a huge controversy within the community, which was only compounded by Binance.

Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange, and its listings have consistently led to huge price spikes for the relevant tokens. For a time, this decision looked like a huge fiasco, leading RedStone supporters to speak out:

“The RedStone airdrop situation is a mess. It looks like 95% of users received nothing, despite years of activity— people who spent 1-2+ years engaging with the project were completely ineligible. I’ve never seen a precedent like this. Every launch like this reinforces [that] there is no real transparency in airdrops, and every mistake like this damages the brand,” one user said.

However, after Binance announced the suspension, RedStone addressed the controversy. The firm responded to community feedback, amending its airdrop plan once again.

5% of RED tokens have already been distributed, and the missing 4.5% will be distributed six months after TGE. Today, 2% will be airdropped on top of that.

Following the amendment, Binance reversed its decision and RED rallied back up, reversing previous losses.

According to data from both CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap, RED launched at $0.80 today. While it briefly went up to $0.98 after Binance’s re-listing announcement, it’s yet to hit the dollar mark.

Overall, RedStone’s reputation may suffer as a result of this incident, even though it acted quickly to correct the problem.

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Garantex, a Russian crypto exchange under US sanctions, accused Tether of attacking the Russian crypto market. 

According to the exchange’s Telegram announcement, Tether has frozen several USDT wallets on the exchange, which are worth over $28 million. 

USDT Holders in Russia are At Risk

Garantex stated that USDT stablecoins in user wallets are at risk. Several USDT funds held by users in the exchange have been frozen. To manage the situation, Garantex has temporarily halted all operations. 

Co-founder Sergey Mendeleev stated that this action disrupts Russia’s international trade carried out with digital assets. 

“We temporarily suspend the provision of all services, including cryptocurrency findings, for a while while we are solving this problem with the whole team. We fight and don’t give up!” Garantex wrote on Telegram. 

Further, he warned that the freeze creates difficulties for businesses and financial institutions that depend on crypto to settle international payments. 

Back in December, Russia’s Finance Minister confirmed that the country has been increasingly using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for international trade amid sanctions. 

“While we discussed easing tensions and relaxing sanctions, we were deceived once again. Suddenly, the paradigm shifted: earlier, sanctions were merely glossed over, but now they block without trial or investigation. This is exactly the reality I have warned about for at least two years, yet neither the Central Bank nor the professional community listened,” — wrote Mendeleev.

Mendeleev stressed that the disruption affects Russia’s economic engagements on a broader scale. Western sanctions have forced digital currencies to play a vital role in international settlements. The current incident further complicates those processes. 

The exchange’s claim draws attention to mounting regulatory pressure and a growing conflict between US authorities and market players operating in Russian jurisdictions.

Garantex Sanction Explained

State Duma deputy Anton Gorelkin added his perspective on the incident. He pointed out that Tether’s decision reflects a broader trend of pressure applied by Western regulators on crypto infrastructure amid ongoing sanctions. 

Gorelkin highlighted that centralized stablecoins like USDT remain particularly exposed to outside control. Despite the blockade, he expressed confidence that it is impossible to completely shut down the Russian crypto market. 

Garantex first encountered regulatory challenges in April 2022. US authorities imposed sanctions following the intensification of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. 

Officials charged the exchange with failing to comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing rules. US agencies claimed that Garantex played a role in laundering over $100 million linked to hacker groups and dark web transactions.

In March of last year, law enforcement agencies from the US and UK began an investigation into Garantex. They reviewed crypto transactions totaling more than $20 billion made using USDT. 

This probe reflects the ongoing tensions between regulators and crypto operators in sanctioned environments.