Binance will launch a Self-Trade Prevention (STP) tool to eliminate the possibility of matching and execution of orders of the same trader (self-trading), which can be considered a type of market manipulation. The new feature will be available from January 26, the exchange said in a statement on its official website.

Self-trading or “self-trading” occurs when the orders of a user or a group of related users coincide with their own orders, RBC writes. The same participant is on both sides of the transaction, so there is no actual change of ownership of the traded asset.

When self-trading is conducted intentionally to create the illusion of trading activity, it can be considered a form of market manipulation, the report says. It can disrupt the natural price discovery process and distort data on asset price, supply and demand.

Intentional self-trading is prohibited under Binance’s terms of use. However, not all such trades are intentional. Some users using several different strategies at the same time may accidentally get two of their own orders matched. The new STP tool will allow API users (the interface that allows them to connect to Binance’s servers and use the resulting data in external applications) to set up protections that will prevent any of their orders from matching each other.

Starting January 26, Binance API users can take advantage of a new STP feature to prevent this type of transaction from happening on spot trades. STP will block the execution of a maker or taker order, or both – whichever is specified by the user in the function’s settings.