Gate’s Same Name Mix Up Triggers 92 Trader Liquidations

Gate.io’s BENUSDT perpetual futures contract triggered 92 liquidations on September 30 after the exchange applied a quarterly dividend adjustment tied to Franklin Resources.

At 08:00 UTC, Gate credited $0.33 per share to net long positions and deducted the same amount from net shorts through a funding-fee mechanism. Traders whose margins were reduced and who did not add funds were force-closed within minutes.

The adjustment was unusually large

September 30 was the ex-dividend date for BEN shares, which is why Gate used it for the synthetic settlement. The $0.33 quarterly distribution represented a 3.1% year-over-year increase and extended Franklin Resources’ streak of annual dividend increases to 45 years.

The unusual feature was the BEN perpetual’s reported price. Social media discussion cited in the report put it near $0.000585 at the time of the adjustment. If accurate, a $0.33 credit or debit was enormous relative to the contract’s notional value. Crypto Briefing said the price divergence from the underlying equity, rather than a system fault, made the adjustment proportionally severe.

Shorts were warned before the adjustment

Gate issued a notice on September 28, two days before settlement. It told short holders to maintain enough margin to absorb the deduction or close their positions. The exchange also publishes dividend-adjustment notices in advance.

Gate has run similar adjustments for other equity-linked perpetual contracts during September, including STR-C, SYK and MPW. None appeared to produce the same liquidation activity.

The reported 92 liquidations, however, should not be confused with a confirmed count of 92 affected accounts. Crypto Briefing inferred the account count from the liquidation orders, while the available material does not specify how many positions were long or short or provide the total value closed.

A same-name error remains unconfirmed

A separate report from The Defiant linked the incident to a same-name asset error and said two self-identified Gate managers reported that 200 accounts were affected. The report’s body was not available for review, and no primary Gate announcement confirming the account figure could be found.

The mechanics of that alleged error, including which assets shared a name and how it caused the liquidations, were not established. The available sources also do not confirm whether the same-name report and the dividend-adjustment liquidations describe the same incident.

For traders using equity-linked perps, the confirmed safeguards are straightforward. Check the adjustment notice, verify the contract’s price against the underlying share price, and account for the full amount of any dividend credit or debit before the settlement time.