Binance adds Monitoring Tag to Civic and Biconomy, a step that can precede delisting

Binance placed its Monitoring Tag on Civic (CVC) and Biconomy (BICO) at 4 p.m. KST on Oct. 9. The tag marks tokens that show notably higher volatility and risk than other listed tokens and that could be delisted if they no longer meet the exchange's listing criteria. Both tokens also trade on Korean won markets: Civic on Upbit and Bithumb, and Biconomy on Bithumb.

Binance said only that the decision was "based on recent reviews" and did not disclose which specific criteria prompted the designations. The exchange lists 10 review criteria, including the team's commitment to the project, the level and quality of development activity, trading volume and liquidity, network and smart contract stability, public communication, responsiveness to periodic due diligence requests, and unjustified increases in token supply. Tagged tokens are reviewed regularly, and the tag can be removed based on the findings. Binance added that other services related to the two tokens would not be affected.

Upbit Civic trading value jumped 23-fold in the hour after the notice

Upbit's hourly candles show Civic opened the 4 p.m. hour on Oct. 9 at 35.2 won and fell as low as 33.1 won, a drop of about 6%. About 600 million won traded in that hour, 23 times the roughly 26 million won of the previous hour. On Binance's CVC/USDT market, the price fell about 8% over the same hour, from $0.0257 to $0.02362, and trading value rose to $1.05 million from $39,000 in the previous hour.

Biconomy fell about 7.5% on Binance, from $0.01988 to $0.01838. On Bithumb's won market, it slid about 6%, from 27.07 won to 25.45 won. On Binance, both tokens recovered more than half of their losses within that hour.

Of 16 tokens tagged from July to September, five were delisted

Binance has issued Monitoring Tag announcements five times since July, including this one. Of the 16 tokens tagged in the previous four rounds, five received delisting notices. Across Protocol (ACX) and ICON (ICX) were the fastest, at 9 to 10 days after being tagged, while Vulcan Forged PYR (PYR) and Vanar (VANRY) took 31 days and Secret (SCRT) took 48 days.

1. July 3, 3 p.m.Tag added to AEUR, Vulcan Forged PYR (PYR), Secret (SCRT) and Vanar (VANRY)
2. July 24, noonTag added to Across Protocol (ACX), Lisk (LSK) and Stacks (STX)
3. Aug. 3, 12:30 p.m.Spot delisting notice for six tokens including ACX, PYR and VANRY; trading ended Aug. 17
4. Aug. 11, 6 p.m.Tag added to Moonbeam (GLMR), ICON (ICX), Moonriver (MOVR), SuperRare (RARE) and Sophon (SOPH)
5. Aug. 20, 3 p.m.Delisting notice for ICX, SCRT and Storj (STORJ); trading ended Sept. 3
6. Sept. 4, 5 p.m.Tag added to AVA, GNS, SCR and TOWNS
7. Oct. 9, 4 p.m.Tag added to Biconomy (BICO) and Civic (CVC)

All nine tokens on the two August delisting lists had already been tagged between April and August. Of the remaining 11 tagged tokens, 10 were still trading on Binance's spot market as of midday Oct. 10, while trading in all of AEUR's spot pairs was halted. In both delisting notices, Binance cited only its "most recent reviews" and gave no token-specific reasons.

ICON's trading on Upbit ends Oct. 19

ICON, which no longer trades on Binance's spot market, changed hands at 19.3 won on Upbit's Korean won market at midday Oct. 10, with 24-hour trading value of about 470 million won. However, Upbit designated ICON as an investment caution asset on Aug. 28, and on Sept. 18 it announced that trading support on its won market would end at 3 p.m. KST on Oct. 19. Upbit cited hacking or other security incidents whose causes had not been identified or that had not been resolved. ICON deposits and withdrawals had already been suspended before the caution designation.

Lisk and Stacks, which were tagged in July, were trading on Upbit's won market without any caution flags as of midday Oct. 10. Upbit had not designated Civic's won market as an investment caution asset or attached any warning flag to it. Civic's website features Bryn, a go-to-market AI agent that identifies the companies visiting a site, while Biconomy describes itself as "Your Universal Interface to All Chains."

Civic at 36 won on Upbit, with a 2% kimchi premium

As of 12:30 p.m. KST on Oct. 10, Civic traded at 36.1 won on Upbit, above its pre-announcement level in the low 35-won range, with 24-hour trading value of about 1.64 billion won. It traded at 35.9 won on Bithumb. Binance's price of $0.02636 converts to about 35.4 won, putting the kimchi premium (the gap between prices on Korean exchanges and global markets) at about 2.1% on Upbit.

At the same time, Biconomy traded at 27.1 won on Bithumb, about 1.4% above Binance's won-converted price of about 26.7 won. Funding rates on Binance perpetual futures, which determine periodic payments between long and short positions, stood at -0.0033% for Civic and 0.01% for Biconomy, showing no strong tilt either way.