The blockchain-crypto rollercoaster took another wild turn today when Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Founder & CEO of Binance, took to Twitter to announce his company’s impending acquisition of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX.
At around 4 p.m. (BST), CZ tweeted that FTX “reached out for help” this afternoon due to a “significant liquidity crunch.”
This afternoon, FTX asked for our help. There is a significant liquidity crunch. To protect users, we signed a non-binding LOI, intending to fully acquire https://t.co/BGtFlCmLXB and help cover the liquidity crunch. We will be conducting a full DD in the coming days.
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 8, 2022
In a series of fast-paced events leading up to this, CZ and Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) appeared to be at odds, though neither party has explicitly stated this.
However, based on a series of tweets and public comments made by both parties, it was reasonable to assume the two weren’t on the best of terms.
Some private financial documents were revealed last week, indicating a strange financial interdependence between FTX (SBF’s exchange) and Alameda Research (SBF’s trading firm/hedge fund).
According to the document, Alameda’s single biggest asset was $3.66 billion in “unlocked FTT,” and the third largest asset was a $2.16 billion pile of “FTT collateral,” both assets accounting for a whopping third of Alameda’s net equity of $14.6 billion.
On Sunday, November 6, CZ announced via Twitter that Binance would liquidate all FTX native tokens (FTT) on its books due to “some findings” suggesting that questionable practices were used to prop up the FTT token. Zhao also questioned the stability of the FTT token and FTX.
In a series of tweets, he explained the reason for the liquidation, beginning with this:
“Due to recent revelations that have come to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books.”
Rumours of liquidity issues (which have now been proven true) sparked a sharp sell-off, with FTT rapidly plummeting to an ATL of $21 on Sunday.
CZ stated in his most recent tweet that more information on the acquisition would be released in the coming days. He also hinted at the possibility of Binance backing out of the deal at any time.
There is a lot to cover and will take some time. This is a highly dynamic situation, and we are assessing the situation in real time. Binance has the discretion to pull out from the deal at any time. We expect FTT to be highly volatile in the coming days as things develop.
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 8, 2022
FTT is down 17.3% in the last 24 hours, which is expected given the impact of today’s announcement and preceding events. FTT is currently trading at $18.92 with a 24-hour trading volume of $2,069,252,386.
For his part, the founder and CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, also tweeted about the news. SBF, as he is known, was at pains to speak positively of Binance and CZ in particular.
1) Hey all: I have a few announcements to make.
Things have come full circle, and https://t.co/DWPOotRHcX’s first, and last, investors are the same: we have come to an agreement on a strategic transaction with Binance for https://t.co/DWPOotRHcX (pending DD etc.).
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 8, 2022
2) Our teams are working on clearing out the withdrawal backlog as is. This will clear out liquidity crunches; all assets will be covered 1:1. This is one of the main reasons we’ve asked Binance to come in. It may take a bit to settle etc. — we apologize for that.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 8, 2022
SBF also downplayed the recent public disagreements between the two exchanges when he said:
“I know that there have been rumors in media of conflict between our two exchanges, however Binance has shown time and again that they are committed to a more decentralized global economy while working to improve industry relations with regulators. We are in the best of hands.”
This acquisition, if completed, could have a significant impact on the shape of the industry as Binance concentrates its dominance and stature across different countries and product types.
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