A single misdirected transfer has escalated into a public clash between two of the most prominent figures in the cryptocurrency exchange industry, with Binance co-founder Yi He hitting back at OKX CEO Star Xu over a disputed user identification (UID) issue.

The confrontation, reported by COINOTAG on November 8, 2026, began after a user on X (formerly Twitter) blamed a so-called UID collision for funds they could no longer access. A user ID, or UID, is the number that each account on an exchange. Because the complaint and the executives' responses have played out in public on X, an issue that might normally stay inside a support ticket has instead become a contested, industry-visible disagreement — a demonstration of how account-level disputes at exchanges of this scale can reach an audience well beyond the parties involved.

How UIDs Work

Crypto exchanges assign a unique identifier to every customer account. The UID distinguishes accounts within a platform's internal systems and is commonly requested in customer support inquiries, transaction tracing, and account verification. A UID collision, in this context, describes a situation in which separate accounts are associated with the same or a confusable identifier, a scenario that can lead to deposits or records being attributed to the wrong holder. That mechanic is what gives this dispute its substance: when a transfer is misdirected, the UID is the reference a platform uses to locate the account records involved, so the identifier — ordinarily a behind-the-scenes detail — has become the crux of the disagreement.

Background on the Two Executives

Binance, co-founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao and Yi He, is the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by reported trading volume, and Yi He has been one of the company's most senior executives since its early days.

OKX was founded by Star Xu and traces its origins to OKCoin, launched in 2013, before rebranding to OKEx and later OKX. It ranks among the largest global digital asset trading platforms. Given that both platforms operate at the top of the industry, a direct public dispute between their leadership over a single user's transfer highlights how, at major exchanges, even routine-sounding support matters can escalate when a user's claim touches core account infrastructure such as identifiers.

The public exchange between the two executives, who lead rival trading platforms, centers on how the misdirected transfer and the contested UID should be interpreted. Full details of both sides' remarks are available in the original report. The report does not state whether the user has regained access to the funds or whether either exchange will comment further, leaving the dispute's resolution an open item to follow.

This content was first published on COINOTAG: https://en.coinotag.com/binance-yi-he-hits-back-okx-ceo-star-xu-uid-dispute