The Seychelles-based crypto exchange OKX is currently investigating allegations of market manipulation of the Celestial (CELT) token. The incident began when Celestial’s developers announced the development of a new blockchain game on February 26, followed by an unlawful social media campaign for the Game-Fi scheme, which was associated with OKX. This caused the CELT’s price to double before dropping more than 50% in two hours.

OKX has since seized over 714,381 USDT from 5 accounts linked to the market manipulation. Celestial has apologized to OKX for the negative impact and affirmed that the exchange was not involved in the promotion. OKX has also admitted that it invested $100,000 in the GameFi project in September 2021 and received CELT tokens “without any transactions.”

In response to the incident, OKX has allocated 1 million USDT for reimbursement to users who purchased the CELT tokens from February 25 to February 28 and suffered losses. The exchange has also said that it will review its listing standards to prevent the listing of such bad tokens.

OKX founder Star Xu has said that his team could consider delisting the CELT token. The exchange has yet to announce the details of the airdrop, but has attributed the delay to the complexity of the process.

The incident has raised questions about the safety of crypto exchanges and the need for better regulation. It also serves as a reminder of the importance of doing research before investing in any crypto asset.