CoinUp founder Queenie Li has personally addressed the controversy engulfing the platform, apologizing for an oversight in vetting Zhu Pan and pledging a series of transparency measures, in a notably softer response than the company struck a day earlier.
From legal threats to a personal apology
The change in posture is the most striking part. In its first statement on Tuesday, CoinUp pushed back hard, opposing the use of “definitive terms such as ‘rug pull’ or ‘scam'” and reserving the right to pursue legal accountability for what it called malicious rumor-mongering. In the June 24 statement, Li set that combativeness aside and led with contrition.
She told users the platform “has not run away, and it absolutely will not run away,” then turned to Zhu Pan directly. Describing him again as the project party behind one listed project rather than a CoinUp trader or core manager, Li acknowledged the company “didn’t fully understand his personal background during our initial review,” called it “an oversight in our work,” and said she felt “deeply sorry” for it.
It is a pointed concession, though a narrow one: the apology is for a screening failure, not an admission of any wrongdoing by the platform, which continues to deny operational ties to the individual.
On the allegations from Binance co-founder Yi He that set off the storm, Li struck a deferential note, calling them He’s “personal expression” on X and saying CoinUp is “actively communicating with her in hopes of clarifying the facts.”
‘CoinUp has not run away’
The core of the statement is reassurance, paired with promises. Li said all assets are safe, deposits and withdrawals are operating normally, and the operations team is on duty around the clock, and reiterated that a security review found no hacking, data breach, or exploited vulnerability. The sharp swings in the CPX token, which reached an all-time high above $0.829 last Friday before falling, were again attributed to market selling pressure, with the technical team still reviewing the data.
To rebuild confidence, Li laid out four commitments: inviting an independent third party to conduct a security audit and publishing the report; overhauling the listing-review process with stronger background checks on project founders; releasing regular proof of asset reserves; and holding ongoing live streams and AMAs.
Those are meaningful pledges, but they remain pledges. None has yet been delivered, and the pattern they follow—affirming solvency, promising audits and reserve attestations while an investigation proceeds—is a familiar one when a platform is working to halt an erosion of trust. It is a script used both by firms weathering unfounded panic and by those in genuine difficulty, and on its own it resolves neither possibility.
What remains unresolved
Several threads are still open. CoinUp has not said it removed the listed project tied to Zhu Pan or took any action against him, even as it promises tighter vetting going forward. Zhu Pan’s alleged history—reporting has linked a person of that name to a 2018 token project that later drew investor fraud complaints—remains contested, and he has reportedly denied founding or operating that venture.
Yi He, meanwhile, has widened her claims, alleging in follow-up posts that the individual used AI-generated content to impersonate prominent families and major exchanges. None of the central allegations has been tested by a regulator or court, and CoinUp’s own investigation into the CPX price action has not produced a published conclusion. Whether Li’s promised audit and reserve disclosures actually materialize, and what, if anything, her communication with Yi He yields, will determine whether the statement steadies the platform or merely buys it time.
Also Read: OKX Founder Star Xu Slams Binance Over MiCA Crash: You Can’t Buy Compliance
